Dark Sonic Forces
by Cutegirlmayra1
Summary: Losing control of his emotions, Dark Sonic finds the struggle of being the 'perfect' hero in these times of war challenging, unable to live up to everyone's expectations with his emotions going out of control. With only one thing able to calm him down, can Amy convince him that no one can stay mad… at a kiss? (Written before Game Release, Sonamy)
1. Chapter 1

_**Dark**_ Sonic Forces

Ch. 1

By: Cutegirlmayra (It's been a long time since I've plotted and written out a full-on fanfiction… I did a silly thing on Tumblr and stated that if I got 300 notes on it I would create a kissing Sonamy story. Well... I'm not comfortable with lots of kissing, but this story should draw out enough kisses to satisfy my promise. Enjoy… while I get nervous lol! x)

The soles of bright red shoes scuffle the dirt that rises over the warm shine of their radiant color like a paused cloud.

A blue figure paints, his hand grazing the dusty road now paved in shambles from its once straight and smooth state.

His body flickers in and out of darker shades, unable to control the raging emotions inside of him.

"…You've already fallen." A darker, more shadowed figure stands with absolute nobility. His mask is suddenly illuminated by a strike of thunder landing a few buildings away.

The once beloved hero shakes his head, unsure why he can't get his act together.

' _This is insane…_ ' He thinks to himself, wiping his mouth and looking squarely to the ground, before sharply glaring up in weariness at his foe.

' _I can't be losing to a Frankenstein!'_

Infinite slid his parted feet together, and with a graceful push off the ground, lightly lifted his resting feet into the air. He barely hovered there long before moving at a grim pace towards Sonic.

His clawed hand rose up as he spoke, his one visible eye narrowing. "How quickly you submit to the dark tendencies lying in wait for you… _ **Sonic**_." He flung the clawed-hand down, slicing it through the muddy air towards Sonic, who quickly jumped back but Infinite wasted no time…

After all… what was time compared to _eternity_?

He bolted himself forward like an arrow whirling through the air, his mask piercing the wind's force to create a type of whistling sound as he slammed his leg fully against Sonic's retreating frame; having caught up to him in a matter of seconds.

"Ack..!" Sonic's mouth burst open, spit flying from the impact.

He was hurled into an adjacent building where some of the structure began to crumble around him from the blow. His body twitched, lying on his back in pain…

How was this possible?

His hands tensed, as if not sure whether to flex out or crush the ground beneath them. Reaching for some strength, Sonic attempted to get up and off his back.

He rose his body forward towards the crumbling ceiling overhead and in front of him, gritting his teeth in aching pain at the fleet… his body jerked back and forth in miniature quakes at the stress on his weary muscles.

 _Infinite laughed_ … his foot stepped into the ruins as quietly as death himself, entering with exceptional grace and balance.

"I was told by Eggman to wait before killing you… but the fear I sense is enough to taste…" he bent his eyelids forward as if enjoying with some strange tenderness the look of helpless suffering before him. "…And this was to be the hero… What a pity."

Infinite bowed with a mocking ovation, dipping his head and cradling his hand under his chest. Then, red cubes flew into existence behind him, pulsing their frightful musical sequence that only meant defeat.

All around the two were darkness and the red lights from the cubes.

Then the lightning struck again, giving the scene a stark contrast, and only lighting up one side of Infinite's rising face.

"Now… a fitting end to your… _Resistance_ …"

Sonic was in trouble and he knew that.

All those hopes riding on him, all those people still left to protect…

He was up on one knee now, his other arm gripping his opposite shoulder.

He was beaten badly, worn out, but worst of all… his pride as a hero was spent.

He felt it. The stir of undesired emotions boiling up inside of him like a bottle being tossed around but unable to shatter.

It bulged under the weight of himself, the constant pressure he placed on it, to seal the lid clamped shut with his sheer will-power.

But now… the fizzing emotions were starting to have a mind of their own. Fed up with being controlled, he could instantly tell he was losing the fight to keep them down.

He dropped his head low.

Infinite lowered his eyelids, even more, this time, his head following the action. "Fear… Anger…" he leaned it up again, but his piercing eyes never stopped twisting the sword of their stare farther into Sonic's soul.

Infinite wanted to free Sonic's emotions too, but so far, everything he had done only made them rebellious, not released.

Infinite lifted his head even higher with arrogance, growing impatient and frustrated, annoyed at Sonic's tolerance.

"…Shame your friend couldn't put up such a _long_ struggle…"

 _ **Then it happened.**_

The bottle burst.

Sonic's head lifted up with a flash of light, his fur turned an increasingly darker shade of blue. He had almost forgotten why he was fighting off Infinite in the first place…

It wasn't about him anymore, and his rage consumed him, causing him to let go and begin using this new power to tear into Infinite. The cubes attempted to rush in and stop him, pelting him with their sharp exterior edges, but he swat them away with such fierce strength that they shattered upon impact.

Infinite could endure countless blows, and his expression remained unchanged, unamused, as this new form of Sonic ripped into him with the strength of a wild animal.

"Impressive." Infinite's face was slammed to the side by Sonic's fist, but he remained perfectly untouched and shifted it back to Sonic flying above him. He remained motionless at trying to stop Sonic from pummeling into him as they flew backwards through the air. "I've been waiting for this ' _power_ ' to reveal itself… Now I see why Eggman desires it so desperately…"

Sonic flung him up, his darkness like flaming mist around his body that seeped into the atmosphere.

His fist shook, as he slowly drew it closer to himself, and harnessed whatever it was that was giving him this second wind.

"HurrraaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" The darkness rose into a powerful energy that rippled through the air like a wave, colliding with Infinite as finally, his eye widened with the first sensations of actual pain induced on his body.

The power shook him to his core, the Phantom Ruby…

He felt his arms wanting to clench it, but they could only flinch up and down at his pathetic attempts to fight off the dark power clenching him.

"This… this power…" his eyes were furiously surprised at this new discovery, "So this is the power of darkness fueled by fear and anger inside of you… I shall harness it into my own being… and destroy you with your own weakness!"

Infinite arched his back, his arms rising with tightened fists bundled into an extreme struggle.

Infinite flinched a few more times before breaking free of Sonic's invisible hold upon his body, but while he was distracted…

"What?" Infinite looked up.

Sonic had jumped into the air at alarming speeds, perhaps matching Infinite's impressive mimicry of his own abilities, before putting his hands together and bending himself back after uncurling from his glowing turquoise ball.

" _ **You should be the one fearing me..!"**_

" _ **No..!"**_

Sonic's hands leveled the gravity surrounding Infinite's head as the two collided.

Amazingly, Infinite had survived and began falling to the earth.

"This.. power.." he left a large, encompassing dent in the once jagged road that looked already cut up and twisted from the war.

Now the place looked like an old, dried up watering hole. The surrounding buildings collapsed at last from the immense power struggle between the two beings.

Infinite's body now looked like Sonic's from before, quaking on the ground as the muscles tried to gather enough force to push themselves out of the crater. He reached his arm up to lift himself from the sneak attack.

"Clever… You've allowed yourself to slip into misery… to defeat me?" he mocked Sonic once more, almost flattered, looking up with an unphased eye as if the blow was only a surprise and not an inconvenience.

"You'd have to equal more than Chaos's own strength before even beginning to hope at avenging the planet _you_ failed…"

His hand gestured out as he now stood perfectly upright as if the attack never happened. His recovery even surprised Sonic, as Sonic's rage continued to create darker wisps around his body. His elbows were crooked and angled down while his hands flexed towards the darkening sky at the sheer amount of power within them.

" _ **Go**_. _**Now**_."

"Demanding me?"

Sonic turned his body, as he began to worry about something far more important than himself.

His head never left the direction of Infinite before saying his final words.

" _ **Our battle isn't over, Infinite… Eggman's war isn't won… I'm not done**_."

"…Of course not. We still have plenty of time to…"

Infinite stepped forward and flicked out a finger with a twist of his wrist as if being cordial in a creepy kind of way.

" _Catch up_."

Sonic's eyes glared deeper into a frightening look.

The threat was only greeted with Infinite pivoting sharply to the air, about-facing from Sonic, "Hmph." He flicked his tail and took off in another direction, having given his 'welcome' to Sonic's return and departing to report his findings to Eggman.

Sonic reached the now moonlit border that separated the battle-worn city from the woodland areas, a piece of grassy hill that lengthened the distance resembled its metaphorical bridge between the destroyed and the living.

Lying down beside a slanted and flattened rock, lay a beautiful but injured Amy Rose.

He approached with little expression, his head slowly turning left and right over her frame, as if his shining white sockets still had the ability to see the things around him.

He knelt down and placed a hand to his knee.

' _It's got to be my fault she was all the way out here_ …' He concluded and looked to her state of wellbeing.

She wasn't looking so good… bruises were forming, some purple with brown outlines, and others blue and bear with burns from robotic lasers.

She was breathing lightly, not a good sign, but her eyes weren't strained, so she must be peacefully asleep.

Still… she looked exhausted and spent, maybe worse than he was.

He reached a sudden involuntary hand out to her.

Unable to process why, his eyes widened and he looked back at his trembling hand, before gripping it in rage.

' _What's wrong with me? What was I planning to-!?_ '

She stirred then, feeling the dark pressure of his presence that was emanating from his core of unchecked, rampant emotions.

He felt shame then.

She blinked her eyes open as he lowered his quarreling hands… one hand gripping his wrist and the other trembling in his powerful rage. He leaned back, away from her, as if afraid of himself… He wasn't sure if he wanted her to see him in this state or not.

' _What… state even is this?_ ' he wondered, as she took a glance at his face.

It must have been quite a look… dark essence radiating around him like black, foreboding flames that mystified her vision into fear; his white sockets glowed to outshine the moonlight, but his voice instantly swayed her back to loving worry.

" _ **Are you alright?**_ "

It was his voice, but it seemed… different… somehow.

" _Sonic..?_ "

He didn't answer, just stared at her in his intimidating state.

This was worse than her finding him when he was a werehog…

" _ **What are you doing here?**_ "

He asked, but his voice was so serious, so full of stern restraint.

"I.. I came to find you."

" _ **It's dangerous**_."

His eyes narrowed as his voice automatically ranged to a scold.

The sudden shift in tone made her blink her eyes further, not sure if she was dreaming this odd vision or if the dream was truly taking place.

"Umm… I came…" she closed her eyes, trying to speak through her weariness. "To find you…"

She stirred only a moment longer before she fainted, rolling off the rock as an immediate hand reached out to catch her.

He was surprised at how aggressive the action was. It wasn't himself at all.

He felt her consciousness slip under his grasp, and suddenly his darker form faded as a look of deep sorrow penetrated through his face.

He still had no control over how he was feeling, he wasn't focusing on it right now, he just couldn't with everything that was on his mind.

And possibly, his heart.

"Amy…"

He felt himself gasping for control over his emotions again, but failing miserably as he remembered returning to find her at the epicenter of Infinite's destruction. She must have come running out of the bunker once the communicators showed his signal coming back on, and the video footage from her wide-screen computer proving that he truly had returned.

He had raced around, gleefully showing off with a dramatic flair that he had returned, but no one seemed to praise or cheer.

All he got was blank looks of mixed emotions. Some were puzzled, others disappointed, maybe upset, but most looked as though he had betrayed them.

Well, to not exaggerate fully, there were those that saw him as a miracle. They hoped he was the sign they were looking for- that the war could be won, even if Sonic had first failed…

' _It wasn't my fault I disappeared, Infinite-!'_ He shook his head, trying to distract himself and remember this wasn't about him right now.

He gripped Amy closer, realizing she was the first one who went running to him when he had returned. He hoped that Tails and the others would do the same but with no consequences this time…

Moving up, he reverted back to his darker form and peered down at her; losing all sense of expression on his face.

His muzzle was becoming enclosed with darkness, giving him an unknown countenance, but his eyes shaped to look frustrated and conflicted. He had shifted in an instant back into his uncontrollable emotions, and they were taking back their dominance over him again. He noticed the shift… but almost didn't care.

He wasn't going to push it down this time. He just didn't have the strength nor tolerance to fight it back right now.

He watched his handshake in rage again, looking to it and back at Amy.

He lowered it delicately to her head.

The darkness whipped like ghostly tongues, moving her quills slightly as Sonic was momentarily paused by the image.

' _What… have I turned into?'_ He pulled his hand back, afraid to touch her in this state.

However, he had to get her home…

He looked around, sensing no enemies that lay in wait up ahead, and tried to reach his arms around her waist.

He could barely feel her body breathing… and a sudden rush of worry and panic rose into his chest.

He quickly stood up, looking to her, shaking her in his arms as she went limp.

" _ **Amy!**_ "

She didn't answer, and with his strength so wild, he accidentally shook her more violently than before.

" _ **Amy!**_ "

He burst through the skyline like a dark comet, wheeling her through the sky as the air-pressure pushed her now frail body up against him at dangerous speeds. His anger drew him faster and faster through the open air until…

He zipped out of sight.

A moment later, he broke the sound barrier by the headquarters. His body stood upright at the abrupt halt as air blasted behind him and whipped his quills forward. He tensed his body and frowned, glaring deeper as he floated down to Amy's window… He didn't mean to shatter it…

He made sure to let himself get cut and avoid further injury to Amy.

' _Whatever I'm feeling inside… must be affecting my outside_.' Sonic concluded, looking to see the darkness that lingered on his body fade the more he worried about Amy…

He attempted to place her down in her bed, hopping down and through the window, before once again desiring for some unknown reason to check her again…

He reached for her face that was turned away from him, laying helplessly- without any sign of motion- on the bed,…

The darkness once again encompassed her face, and she began to turn in her sleep, feeling the suffocating air block her breathing with its grasp.

Unaware of the cause of her movement, he stopped his hand and moved it away.

Then, he collapsed.

Amy never knew he had fallen by her bedside. She only understood that she was found with him and that he was injured.

She fell under the treatment's medication which loosened her muscles and softened the pain… but there was a worry in everyone's eyes at her final, conscious words…

" _Dark_ …"

She stated, but not having enough breath to elaborate as the medicine lulled her back into her deepening sleep once more.

" _Sonic_ …"

. . . . . . .

Sonic's eyes began to flicker open. He scanned the white tiled room, waiting out the blur on his eyes, which weren't accustomed to the well-lit room yet.

"Amy..?" he faintly called out, before another familiar voice spoke up.

"She's… well, if it weren't for you, she'd be in a lot worse condition right now."

"…Emm… Tails?" Sonic rose a hand up to his face, covering the light from his recovering eyes, before looking with curiosity to his arm. "I'm…" '- _Back to normal again..._ '

"Just fine!" Knuckles then came into view, it had to be him. The pudgy red blur seemed to be folding his arms and then gesturing some sort of greeting to Sonic. "You really had us worried! Glad you're back, Sonic."

"Heh." Sonic smiled, letting the still weary arm fall down over his adjusting eyes. ' _Good old Knuckles… Tails…_ '

"Although… I'm really worried about Amy at this point."

Sonic's eyes flashed open, his arm moving off of them. They scanned the ceiling but seemed to be focused on something entirely different.

Was Silver in the room too?

"Is she still not recovering well?" Tails had both hands gripping lightly to Sonic's gurney, before turning to look at Silver, "I thought by now… they would both be healing at the same rate as each other…"

"Well…" Knuckles gruffed, readjusting himself as well, and looked down, "Ahh…" he rubbed his chin, looking away, "Amy's injuries were pretty severe… she walked straight into Infinite's path while looking for Sonic's signal… I can't imagine her healing with the same speed as Sonic right now…"

Sonic's eyes trembled, they shifted around as tears almost threatened to emerge behind them. "Amy..?"

The three suddenly turned to Sonic.

"Amy…" his eyes were flashing between memories, having seen her beneath Infinite's destructive path, her fallen body, the ashes rolling off her frame as Infinite turned to then see him.

" _Amy…Amy…_ _ **AMYYY!**_ "

Sonic began to flail and kick the covers off, his dark form triggering and his unchecked rage controlling him once more. " _ **Why are you worried about me!? Get Amy! Help her! HELP HEEEERRR!**_ "

"Woah!" Tails fell backwards, as the three shielded themselves with their arms at the immense, darkwave power blasting them back from Sonic.

His darkness created a pressurized atmosphere, pushing gravity down and out from around him as he screamed, powering himself up without noticing what he was doing.

" _ **AHHHH!**_ "

"Tails! Put him under!" Silver cried out, as Tails rolled up from off the ground, fighting the force and looking to Silver, having a hand up to fight against the pressure.

"What's happening to him?" He gritted his teeth, not fully able to keep his head upright.

"Do it now!" Silver cried out, as his feet started to give way and he began kneeling to Sonic's outrage.

Tails quickly crawled the best he could to the side of the gurney, flicking the switch on and up'ing the dose of medication going into Sonic.

After a few moments, the fast droplets of medicine began flowing into Sonic's bloodstream.

His scream almost instantly stopped, and the pressure died down. Sonic's arched back and lifted legs began to slowly drop, but his mouth still hung open, allowing him to pant. He could feel the medicine lulling him back to stability, feeling it gently massaging the anger down and back beneath his being.

His eyes faded from their white to a dark blue, revealing he even had eyes under the brilliant white that encompassed his eye-sockets.

He rested his head back down, before looking back over the ceiling… " _ **Leave me… attend her…**_ _**hel**_ _p_ _her… he_ lp her…" he slipped out of his rage… his dark fur fading… and fell back to sleep as his head swayed left and the wires from above the room snapped out and dangled around.

Loose items suddenly collapsed or shattered at the return of gravity and normalized pressure.

The three panted before Knuckles fell on his hand.

"What… just happened?"

(And so… our story begins~)


	2. Chapter 2

**Dark Sonic Forces**

By: Cutegirlmayra (My sincerest apologies! Lots of things are happening right now. I received my first few commission orders for writing (PM me for prices and what's offered if you're interested) and I've been getting paid and doing that. Plus, tumblr prompt requests are high and I'm still getting art submitted in for the contest so I could write those prompts with preview images. Lastly, I've been living with a friend for a while and having a blast! There are so many chapters and things I want to write. I know you're all excited for Second seasons of Instincts and Metallic Need after I edit them, and even more are excited for this story and Harmony, and the continuing of Sonic IRL and Pokemon Daycare. I swear I'm trying. It's… quite a lot to write, but I love you and I love these stories and I'm sincerely trying. It's just a whole lot of writing, lol. I'm also trying to edit all my old stories, so one thing at a time! Now, you're all very excited about this 'make-out' sonamy I promised you, but remember, I only do innocent stuff. So although exciting at parts, you can be sure nothing's going over the deep end. I'll also attempt to keep this in character as I've been known for. So again, enjoy, review, and once again, I love you so much! -I wouldn't be bustin' my rear-end to get all these things done for you if I didn't… wait, am I still writing my inner thoughts? Oh shoot!- *P.S: This was made before we knew anything about Sonic Forces. I'm sticking to the AUish idea of Sonic Forces, so please, understand it's _loosely_ based on it.)

"He's gone!"

The bustle of voices sprang from every loose nook and cranny in the metal compound of HQ. The battle was far from over.

However, stirring very lightly in her sleep, Amy Rose remained recovering as the voice rang into a shrilling fright, a panic of worry and uncertainty, something not normally associated with Sonic…

Her sheets lightly wafted against her skin. Her dress had been changed out into a hospital's open gown in the back, tied neatly and attended to by the nurses on standby. Each a volunteer and each worried about their planet and loved ones…

But they all agreed, every rookie and every recruit knew, that as long as Sonic had returned and the main leaders were still present; Knuckles, Tails, Silver, Rouge, Team Chaotix… all those who fought as their mentors and friends… they would be safe.

Amy was included in their aspiring hope for a brighter day, a new era… one free of Eggman's tyranny and Infinite's destruction.

Amy softly breathed upon the soft pillow, her lips grazing the surface before the uncanny musical ruckus of the outer world began to interfere with her daydreams.

She remembered… _darkness_.

 _Something suffocating her._

 _An airy touch that licked at her chin and cheeks…_

She turned in her sleep, uncomfortable with the sensation returning to her memory, and moaned slightly in her sleep. Her eyes narrowed and increased their pressure at this thought replaying for a moment.

Then… as if lulled back to sleep, the crowd cease to exist, but a warm and tender hand touched her forehead and she was soothed.

"…She's having a hard time recovering with all this… madness." Silver shook his head, removing his hand. He walked away from her and towards Tails, "How is she doing?"

"I.. I think she's having nightmares." Tails looked a little concerned, moving Silver towards the readings. "We can't fully tell, but she's experiencing a lot of… weird sensations. It's as though energy was transferred to her and it's causing some discomfort."

"Energy?" Silver looked innocently confused back at Tails, seeing the readings but unable to identify them. "I specialize a little in… other things." He admitted, frankly, before showing his apologetic look to Tails, who only laughed.

"That's alright! Technically, she should be waking up soon. Although, granted, taking it easy for awhile… but we'll set her up in her old communications room again so she should be able to relax and feel more comfortable there."

"That's a good start. After what happened to Sonic…" Silver nodded… but folded his arms and looked back to Amy.

Concern wouldn't describe the perplexed fear that smothered his face almost instantly…

"I just wouldn't want her to experience the same effects." He looked down, clearly worried. "We're not sure if that 'energy' can spread yet." He clicked a few buttons to replay Sonic's outburst from before.

The video showed the whirling of pressure and items crushing and darting around, the dangling of cords from above when they finally sedated him.

"…It was pretty messy to create an alibi for that."

"Yeah… everyone would have freaked out." Tails gulped, already on the verge of panicking himself.

"And now, with Sonic demanding to go out to battle like he did… then just disappearing against our wishes regardless…" Tails looked down.

"You knew he would do what he wanted too, Tails. It's not that he wasn't thinking of us." Silver placed a friendly, assuring hand on Tails's head, lowering himself down to smile and be more in view of him. "He's just Sonic. He always goes where he wants, and does what he feels is right."

"But he didn't even explain what happened to him. Our records show that that energy is somehow tied to his emotional distress. What if he gets agitated again? And can't control himself like last time?" Tails moved away a bit from the comforting touch, and looked back to Amy, still slightly lifting her legs up and down in random order, shifting herself side to side.

"Amy was only exposed to a little of the pressure from it… and she's still in a lot of pain from her run-in with infinite… she's been tossing and turning like that all night." He sighed, "I watched the videos… Even if she wakes up, she'll be at half her regular strength. And Sonic… something's influencing his darkness. This is above any Chaos reading I've ever recorded or studied… I have a bad feeling about this."

Tails returned to the monitor and began clicking random buttons, taking the video off the screen and closing the rest of the data. He only kept her vital signs on display and then looked to Silver.

In a serious tone, he nodded and spoke again, "For Amy's sake… and the others, we should keep what's going on with Sonic to ourselves. We don't know how much she knows about this either, and we won't until she fully wakes up." He looked back at her and then down, as if he felt he had failed her in some way, and walked to the door.

"Do you need help with the luggage?" Silver gestured to all the records he was huffing around, as Tails politely smiled and lifted a leg and a tail up to grab some tumbling documents.

"Yes, please."

The friendly exchange was soon over and the two went back to their jobs, and later Amy batted her eyes, looking around.

No one in sight.

She blinked, feeling dust on her eyes, and wondering why that was so.

She tried to move her arm, "Ah…" she felt a huge resistance in her body as it seemed to forfeit the will to comply.

She felt the muscle was heavier than she ever remembered and stopped struggling to move her arm after a moment.

Still dazed, she looked to the only possible answer.

She was drugged up.

Groaning in agitation, she looked to the side where the doses were. "…How… much?" she thought they had to be kidding her.

The dial was almost to it's farthest, what were they afraid of?

She didn't feel broken and battered or in immense pain. Although, there was that unsettling feeling before… but she didn't feel it now.

She tried to at least will her arm to scoot itself up to the dial.

After a few frustrating minutes of clenching her teeth as tight as her drugged-induced body could manage force, she was able to press down the button, and wait it out.

When the machine stopped bumping the medicine to calm her down and not feel pain, she suddenly, and wearily realized her body was a bit worse than she remembered.

It felt soggy, as though there were no muscles at all.

She knew it would wear off, but worried about how much pain they really thought she was in.

What else could explain the high doses?

When she finally grew the will to get up, the strength to push off, she felt the cool air whisk by the sweat on her back and mentally noted she would need to bathe after all this.

How long was she out?

She still felt tried but knew it would only get worse if she waited about.

She slipped from the comfy bed and clung to its railing, seeing the rollers were jammed so she wouldn't be sliding everywhere with it.

She looked to the screen.

If she wanted answers… she'd need to get over to that monitor.

Crawling on her hands and knees, Amy wobbled as her head began to reel.

She felt like throwing up.

Whatever damage she had sustained, it couldn't have been so bad that they needed to induce this must pain resistance to her.

However… Infinite had struck her pretty good.

She gripped her stomach, then her throat.

She checked her cheeks, she herself was a qualified nurse, she had done Sonic and her friend's injury cleanups for years.

She lifted herself up to the console, carefully trying to get her feet under her. Your foot was cranked completely back and weakly dragged as she tried to position it correctly.

It hurt to place weight on it, but she did so anyway.

Gritting through the process, Amy pressed her chin into the steely surface of the console, puffing out air as she struggled to get herself upright.

After another few minutes, she was exhausted, but up.

She leaned over the cool, metal counter and looked up at the screen, her hands folded under her to stabilize her.

Her feet were on their tip-toes, trying desperately not to fall over. To assure this, she leaned all her weight to her torso and keeping herself laying halfway up on the console.

She was careful to not press any buttons, but in her pain and uncomfortable state, she clicked some buttons with her nose.

"This… is… ridiculous." She finally spoke out loud, hearing her unused voice's raspy quivers as it tried to form words.

She was really out. They totally did her an injustice by putting so much medication into her tiny, sensitive body.

Amy took to medicine all to well, mostly because she was careful to never need it. Healthy diet, not too many dangerous situations; overall, she was fairly wise with what battles to fight and when to fall back.

A folder opened, mostly for Sonic, and reading it as confidential and the date on its file name… she found more interest in that than her own vital signs.

She double-clicked her nose into the button… before the horror of the scene spiraled around her eyes like a lucid dream.

"Sonic…" Her face grew into a grave and sorrowful one, her mouth opened as her eyes moistened at the rage on his face, the coloration of the film, and the objects getting compressed around him.

Tails… Silver… Knuckles… they were all struggling to get off the floor.

"What has happened to you..?"

That's when she saw them slam on the dial and then strained to move her head and look back at her own.

Her eyes shifted around the device…

We're they afraid… of the same thing happening with her?

She swallowed, feeling the thirst for water and food in the action, but also the realization that whatever was happening…

Wasn't intended to happen to her either.

"I have to… find him." She removed her arms from under herself, letting them push passed her chest and reach to grip as much as she could the corner of the desktop.

No way was she going to have Sonic suffer on his own.

Where was he? How was he?!

She was almost able to reach the next operation tools holding desk, when she collapsed and fell from surprise when the door opened.

"Oh, my Chaos! Amy!" the girl dived as quickly as she could to catch her, but Amy's jaw hit the ground fairly hard, and she groaned in the pain of it.

It shot up like mini lightning snakes, slithering up to her brain and then holding the pain locked in their muscly bodies.

She winced when the girl turned her over and looked up at the screen.

Amy could see the information take hold on her face, and slowly shift it into a horror film's tragic Vitim.

She screamed for help.

* * *

"Not, _**under any circumstances**_ , are you ready to go out there and fight!"

"I got it, Tails."

"You have to stay here! Where it's—"

"Safe!" Knuckles, storming with every fall of his feet after them, hovered dangerously with a booming voice by Amy's left ear. Tails was like the pattering of rain, steadily keeping on course with her position, but constantly chattering like seagulls caught without land for refuge.

Amy had gained her strength back and put on her iconic dress. The drugs wore off not to long after the pain in her jaw subsided, and she was able to tell Knuckles and Tails what she saw.

They constantly asked about what she knew, but she only told them she saw Sonic like that for a moment. It wasn't long enough to ask him how he was feeling.

"The whole of the base is buzzing with what that young nurse saw. You have to play it off as a rumor, or-or-"

"We can't lie to the people, Knuckles." Amy wasn't in the mood for horsing around with politics.

"Grrr… FINE! Then you try and stop mass panic!" he once again held up his fist, and hollered so loudly in her ear that she had to close her eyes and turn from the ringing it caused in her ear.

"Knuckles! Amy is still recovering, show some sensitivity and don't yell at her like that." Tails held up both hands defensively, before balling them up into fist and trying to earnestly stop the raging hurricane in Knuckles's tone.

Knuckles seemed to almost growl a moment… before huffing away from her and keeping on a straight course again.

"Alright, alright… I'm sorry, okay? We're all worried sick about Sonic, and you just waking up makes us a little… fidgety."

"What Knuckles is trying to say—"

Amy swayed her arms as she moved faster, passing the two and figuring out what she wanted to do to reach her objective.

First, she had to reassure them that everything was gonna be alright.

When she came to the door, the two were exchanging glances behind her and were hurrying to quickly catch up to her footsteps before she abruptly turned around to them.

Like the game 'red-light, green-light' they froze as if being caught in the act of whatever they were mutually thinking about.

"…Thank you for caring and taking care of me." Amy bowed.

"Oh, uh…" Tails looked to Knuckles, who was as weirded out by this change of pace too. "Em." They turned back to her and bowed as well, showing some respects.

She immediately moved herself back up, straight as a plank. "Now. I'm going back to work. Assure everyone I'm fine and so is Sonic!" with absolute moxie and confidence, Amy opened the door and entered in, closing it quickly with a tight click of its lock and wandered over to the computer.

Knuckles and Tails blinked for a moment in surprise.

They then looked at each other with smiles.

"You think she'll be alright?"

"She was just like you when we found out about Sonic, Tails…" Knuckles took a deep, low breath in, before winking to Tails and lightly nudging his shoulder. "She was resilient then, but still a bit snapped. But now that he's back, look at you! Steppin' up to the plate. I'm sure she's just trying to do the same. Sonic inspires hope and the best in all of us. We need to keep that going. No matter what may be wrong with him."

Tails nodded, looking back to the door. "But…"

Knuckles kept walking, only calling back to him, "Come on, Tails! She knows her place is here. We've gotta lead the squadrons. They need to come home, and the next batch needs to head out!" Knuckles rotated his shoulder, seeming relaxed or loosening tension he was once harboring as Tails sighed and hurried after him.

"W-what about Sonic?" Tails looked up to him after catching up to his rough stomps.

Knuckles billowed a laugh and wrapped a friendly arm around Tails's shoulders, pulling him along. "Haha! He's Sonic! And he's alive to boot! We'll have a word with him when he returns. Maybe he just needed to let some extra tension out, eh? Get that fresh, smoky air of rebellion back in his lungs!" Knuckles lightly jabbed Tails in the stomach, making him 'offph!' forward and grip his stomach.

"Right… some air." He strained to speak through the 'friendly gesture' Knuckles had so graciously bestowed upon him.

"Hmm…" Amy lowered her eyelids, honing-in on Knuckles's loud voice, waiting for the two to leave. "Some pep-talk."

She typed away. "I gotta find Sonic's location… this room has the fastest communication systems. I should be able to locate him on one of the armies video-cams on their communicators…"

There was a loud hum and then metallic interference on the radio signals, and Amy knew that was an indication that they were under heavy assault.

"Battle means Sonic." She picked up the headphones and placed them on, hearing tons of voices before scanning through the videos.

"There!" she saw a blur of dark blue… before the image reset and she switched the radio channels to that soldier's particular channels.

His name flashed on and she quickly called to him, "This is Amy Rose! I'm seeing what you're seeing. What's going on?"

"Amy? Ah! We're under heavy fire!"

"I can see that but- Ah! Look out!"

A large piece of earth came hurtling over to the side of the soldier's video camera, but he dodged before getting rammed by Zavok, seeing him laugh as he tumbled himself behind some cover.

"Woah! Phew…"

"Please! Where's Sonic!?"

"He's… they're provoking him."

The soldier's camera positioned itself to Infinite, Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Chaos all surrounding Sonic, who let out a huge, powerful cry that shook the area. Around him was a dark matter of some kind, wisping around him and having the look of a spinning sun.

"What… what is that?" Amy's eyes shook, seeing his eyes glow white as the image started to frizz out. She was removing the headset… her hand reaching out to Sonic's image as he seemed to be panting in extreme exertion. He fell to one knee in the distance as her hand pressed and fell on the screen towards his image.

"Miss Amy—!" the soldier's voice caught her attention, snapping her out of her longing to be there with him, wanting to help before she shook her head pulled the headphones back on. "Whhaaa!"

She cried out his name again, before seeing Zavok snicker into the camera before his foot crashed down on it.

"No." she closed her eyes and looked away.

Tears began to fall before she tried to force what she just saw out of her thoughts.

Though her heart ached, she needed to find Sonic.

She threw the headphones down, already knowing the area they were battling in, before the door's locked click and was slammed open.

"Going somewhere?" Silver floated into the room, looking suspicious as his eyes narrowed to show he suspected her of ditching.

"T… The soldiers…" she couldn't take her eyes off his own piercing gaze but angled her neck to the computer. "They're fighting all of them. They've centered around Sonic. He needs help…"

"And are you going to alert anyone?" Silver raised an eyebrow, "I can handle communications. Go and tell Knuckles about this." He floated by her and put the headset on.

She sighed in relief, seeing that Silver wasn't _that_ attentive.

She hurried, crashing into people through the halls, "Sorry!" and having documents spill everywhere or just knocking people back a bit into the close proximity walls that no one bothered to design properly.

Racing to the exit, Amy was stopped once again by Tails turning to see her rushing by in another room, open to the many spider-like hallways that littered the base. "Amy! Where are you going? I thought you were back at the communication room?"

"I.. I, um." Amy looked to him, lifting a leg up as if her first instinct was to just book it. But being smarter than that, she hesitated and looked to the route towards her objective. "I'm alerting you." She nodded.

"… what?"

"I'm alerting you to danger and you need to get to the communication room right away! Silver will explain the rest!" She dashed off again.

"Hey! W-where are you going!?" He flew into the hall but didn't chase her.

She sped around the corner, "To alert Knuckles!"

She tried not to lie.

If he came in her way then—

"Amy?" Knuckles turned from talking to someone from a group that had returned. Soldiers and recruits had their arms over the others, helping the injured into safety while they, themselves were battered enough as is.

"Consider yourself alerted!" she continued to run.

"Alerted?" He scoffed, "At what?"

"Ask Tails!" she cried back, before making another turn.

"…Hey… Hey, hey, hey—That's the exit!" Knuckles side-stepped a few times, watching her route before rushing to the opened 'garage' where the men were coming in from.

He crashed through a wall just to try and stop her, before seeing she had jumped in the X-Tornado and was unsteadily veering off the ground.

"Oh, Chaos…" he slowly lowered his shoulders down… realizing there was no way to stop her now.

* * *

On the battlefield, Sonic spat out the dust that stuck to the insides of his mouth. His strength was leaving him and something new… something indescribable was replacing it. It felt different from his normal strength, it was like he was fueled by nothing, and slowly rose up as he let it take over.

' _Whatever this thing is…_ ' he thought to himself, glaring up at Infinite and Eggman. ' _If it helps me give them their just deserts, then—!_ '

The power encircled him as he gritted his teeth, tightening his fist, and feeling the empty power suddenly twitch his body and unwillingly move him about.

"Ah…hah…Ahhah…" he felt his head slowly move up, his legs and knees bent without him controlling it.

"Fascinating…" Eggman snickered to himself, looking down at a status meter and 'hoho'ing his usual happy mocking. "Get him to the next level." Eggman looked to Infinite, giving an order and then pulling up and slightly away. He pressed his gloved-hands together and sneered, as Chaos and Metal Sonic flew to Infinite's sides.

"So much suffering… all in the name of acquiring your title back."

Sonic let out shaky breathing, slow and steady; his eyes reappeared for a moment to shrink and shake while his pupils sharpened before disappearing under the whites of his glowing eye sockets.

His head angled completely down, hunched over, as his feet slowly took zombified steps towards them.

"… _ **What do you have against suffering**_..?"

Infinite bellowed a low chuckle.

"Absolutely nothing."

He pulled back his hands to one side of his body, powering up a beam before firing it at Sonic.

He was gone with only a small bit of dust to show he was ever there, spinning like a dust devil in his spot while the beam shot through the ground and burnt away in its spot.

"What?"

Infinite lurched a little forward, before being rammed into by Dark Sonic reappearing, punching, kicking, and forming with his two hands one large hit to slam against the top of Infinite's head.

" _Excellent_ …"

There was a gleam in Eggman's glasses before an engine reared to life in the distance and its hum made him tilt his head and shake it for a moment in anger.

"Where in the world is that noise coming from!? An engine?!" He twisted his body back and forth, shaking aggressively his hands and arms in the air as he tried to locate it.

Startling him, Eggman looked forward and leaned himself towards something sparkling in the distance.

"It can't be…" he tried to narrow his sights on the object. "He's still to shaken up to fly that thing…" His eyes then widened, "HMMM?"

Amy charged into the scene, "AHHHH!" she dived straight at him.

"WAHHHAAHHA!" In absolute bafflement and fright, Eggman quickly jumped up, stomped his foot to the edge of his Eggmobile, and tugged on the lever for it to pull up.

Just in time, his eggpod escaped her speedy takedown and quickly he turned to get a better look at her in the skies.

"What on earth is that girl thinking!? Does she have a death wish!? She could of gotten us both killed!"

Infinite was slammed against a building, being held there as Sonic's face was pure attack-mode, not a single look of humanity before his hostile expression turned to Eggman in the skies.

He saw the X-Tornado take a sharp aerial spin upward, before turning around to launch itself back at him.

"WAHHHAAA!" Eggman swerved right, dodging her again, then turned himself around to shout back at her. "IDIOT!"

" _ **H-huh?**_ " Sonic felt his senses returning to him. " _ **H-…Her?**_ "

Seeing Sonic distracted from his choke-hold on him, Infinite rose one of his hands from holding Sonic's back and flexed out his claws.

Ripping into Sonic, Dark Sonic was thrown back and Infinite pulled him into his illusion sphere, repeatedly using many illusions of him to attack and laugh at Sonic.

"Pathetic!" he shot him out of the dimension as he blasted against the ground, struggling to get up as he felt the crumbling pebbles under the palm of his hand get up into his glove and scratch his skin.

"I would have thought that 'time' we spent on the moon would have taught you a thing or two…" Infinite landed on the ground, flicking his thumb and index finger's claws to make sparks fly off of them, sharpening them as he drew closer…

Sonic's back was facing him, trying to shake himself out of it, feeling nothing but the numbness of having no control over himself.

" _ **What… is this? It's… what's happening to me..?**_ " Sonic continued to try and regain himself, confused as to why he ever would give up his will in the first place. " _ **I… can't… move…**_ "

"You seem to be moving just fine…" Infinite's foot pressed against his back, shoving him down slowly… as Sonic's body tried to fight back, before collapsing as the dark skin tone of Sonic's blue fur began to fade. " _For an insect_." he reared his hand back.

"….sssssooooOONNIIICCCC!" fading in from the distance, Amy jumped out of the X-Tornado as it crashed into Infinite as he turned his head.

His one eye opened widely.

Sonic, feeling the darkness pull at him, saw the shadow of the plane's mass heighten around him, and the smoky vines from before paw at the ground to the sides of him.

He quickly jumped as they tangled and shook around his body, protecting him from the crash but also pulling him away from the site.

When he came too, he was crawling away from the fire, as Infinite had sliced the plane in half.

He gripped his arm while shoving a large metallic piece of the plane's tip away from him, before lurching his head up and crying out a painful sound. "IS THIS WHAT IT COMES TO!? RELYING ON YOUR FRIENDS TO SAVE YOU!? What ever happened to true power, Sonic? Power that comes from within you… AND YOU ALONE!" he was circling around, trying to find Sonic in the debris, before tackling into some piles of hulking plane pieces mingled with rocks and digging through them. "WHERE ARE YOU!? HEDGEHOG!? Prove to me your still here… kicking back like a beast on its last leg of existence…" he kept wandering around, as Sonic continued to see the dark vines pulling against the ground, and as he crawled on his belly, they pushed him forward.

He didn't think a whole lot on it, only realizing he wasn't thinking much at all.

He felt… what was he feeling?

He wanted to run away… hide.

That didn't seem right. He stopped himself and let him breathe for a moment. ' _Sonic… get ahold of yourself! Whatever's happening to you… you can't let it control you like this. It's making you—!_ '

"… _Afraid_?" Infinite's eye turned to scan behind him. The fires fueled the mirrored look of his own eye, as with each step, a new beat began to play like a dark drum beat.

He started to walk with uneasy steps, still holding his arm. "Where's… your… little…"

" _Friend?_ "

As if with the shrieking of a harp, Sonic's head shot up, and in the murkiness of his lava white eyes, his regular eyes could be seen emerging and shaking as if glitching from Infinite's illusion.

Still trapped it in, but having no clue of it, Sonic willed his feet, and they obeyed this time.

The darkness pulled back, losing control but powering him from his core.

He felt feeling again… but this feeling… he wasn't able to master it like he usually could.

It was pumping through his veins.

It was feeding off the soreness of his jaw from clenching his teeth so hard, from the expanding pain of his lungs filled with dirt and dust.

It empowered him in the squeezing of his fists tighter and tighter… in the pulsing of his heartbeat.

" _ **Touch her…**_ "

Infinite turned his face like a cobra to his prey at the first sound he heard, and gently lowered his foot from stepping any further.

" _ **And you die.**_ "

Like a beast, Sonic felt the darkness wrap around his head, creating a new mask that mimicked the slight design of Infinite's, having darkness cover his eyes and a mouth that moved on its own with sharp pointed teeth that chomped even though Sonic's own mouth didn't move.

It was like another being was engulfing and taking an outer form around him.

It hissed as Sonic lunged forward, prepared to end this fight with Infinite once…

 _And for all._

* * *

Amy crawled out of the collapsed windshield that ejected with her pilot's seat. Feeling the glass scratch against her bare arms, she was flinched with her eyes at each cut, enduring till she was out.

She rolled to her back, puffing out pockets of air and then sighing in relief.

She rolled away again to push off and get herself up again. Looking around, she could only see above her were the fire's brown smoke, mingled with the glow of the small fires scattered below.

They were destroying anything they could eat.

And she watched as a blade of grass, already struggling to reach sunlight, was consumed slowly the flame, becoming nothing more than ash of a former life.

Her fear skyrocketed then.

What if she hurt Sonic?

She lowered her head, shaking it back and forth as the tears threatened her eyes again.

Her composure was beginning to weaken again, and her body kept telling her she needed to rest and go home.

But Sonic was part of her home.

She needed to find him.

"No, no, no… no, no, no, no…" she cried lightly, the tears only coming when she squinted her eyes tightly shut.

The dryness of the air reminded her that she was thirsty, a luxury she forgot when fixated on finding Sonic.

She slowly rose up, feeling her knees scrape against the rough ground and finally leaned herself against a ruined building.

She saw the soot on her clothes and remembered she needed a shower.

She looked to her feet and legs, seeing them shake from her trembling realization of the suicide mission she had just insanely accomplished.

However, she lived.

She leaned forward, groping for some fresh air and anything to grip too.

She groaned and got herself up, before a large crash knocked her down again, "AH!"

She covered her head as Infinite and Sonic's merged bodies flew so fast by her that it looked as though it were only images circling each other.

"S…Sonic!" she was thrilled to see he was alive, but the dark, spiraling body of blue darkness around him frightened her.

"What… is.." she slowly got herself up, seeing the head of the creature.

It's spines jagged Sonic's original upward spines from when she last saw him in this form.

Its eyes were covering Sonic like he was wearing a living suit, and his hands were like three ghostly claws that Infinite struggled to push back against.

Dark Sonic reared Infinite upward, before pulling him down to his face, having thousands of dark vines lick around his being before pulling him closer to his roaring misty head.

The real Sonic looked to be using a lot of force and energy under the mask, seen through the mouth of the beast.

Resembling Sonic as a hedgehog, but more like a creature from Dark Gaia, the beast chomped as if trying to bite at Infinite before Sonic frowned and threw him down, having him crash against the ground.

Infinite looked… _afraid_.

Amy saw as he lifted himself up, his body trembling like hers was a moment ago.

His eyes shook in his fright, as he looked at his hands, "No…" He gripped his head. "No…!" He then arched his back to the skies, "NOOO!"

A swarm of illusions appeared around him, and Amy stepped back, confused.

She had no idea what it meant. So many Metal Sonics, Zavoks, and Chaos?

But then… behind her stood a Shadow… though she had no idea about.

The creature shook and twitched as Sonic turned around, before seeing Amy in the distance.

His mouth opened, and the beast cocked his head in confusion, but Sonic's head never moved.

" _ **Amy**_ …"

Infinite was struggling to breathe, ripping at his mask before gripping his throat.

The vines had slithered their way down to him, wrapping around his being before being broken off when Sonic flew like a jet through the air and rammed a knee into the throat of the shadow illusion.

"AHH!" Amy didn't know that though, she ducked down and covered her head, before turning to see him raise a fist a downed Shadow. "No! Sonic!"

Reaching for him, her voice made his eyes widened and the beast struggled to remain. Jerking left and right, it cried out before falling away like morning mist around his form.

He was back to just a regular darkened tone fur and those white eye sockets… moving like hot liquid as he turned to look at her.

Her tear-line showed perfectly as the smoke had left ash on her face, and the tears had taken some of the soot with them as they fell.

There was a clear line, and seeing it… Sonic released Shadow as it hit him off itself.

Amy really thought Sonic was going to kill Shadow…

She gripped her arms, holding herself as he got up.

He stood as though not a man… but a _thing_.

"Sonic…?" she slowly moved closer, as Infinite collapsed behind her, tearing at the ground as if trying to will himself up but couldn't.

His fear had locked him into a forced-panic, and his body wouldn't move from its place…

That, and his metallic body was starting to remain the broken bones and fractures in painful ways that couldn't possibly be imagined. With all that happening… he was unable to move but kept crying out from the crater he was trapped in, shouting in his pain and agony, hitting the ground repeatedly.

Sonic didn't move…

Amy… slowly… took the first steps towards him.

"Sonic… Are you there..? Here… with me?"

The flames had grown weak from not enough fuel to keep them going. With that, the skies were cleaning, and a patch of sunlight rayed like a heaven's angled light upon her face as she approached him… covered in darkness and the brown-tints of smoke.

She coughed a moment, stopping in her advance and turning away from him.

His face shifted, worry as his mouth opened and his eyes bent in concerned.

"… _ **Are you alright?**_ "

The seriousness of his stoic face was gone, and immediately she had to let out a bit of a chuckle, just to release some of the built-up tension inside of her. It compressed her sides so violently that she thought it would never loosen up.

"Sonic... You... you scared me." She kept breathing out a light laugh.

"… _ **I**_ …" he looked at his hand. " _ **Did?**_ "

Understanding came slowly… before he looked back to her with caution.

" _ **Stop! Don't come any closer...!**_ "

She did so, confused and worried why he would say that.

He shook his hands out in front of him, before shaking his head and looking distressed.

" _ **I… I don't think I can control myself.**_ " He squinted his eyes shut, gripping his chest. " _ **Something… something is making me do things I normally wouldn't do… I can't control it… Or I can… I'm just…"**_

He looked back at Amy.

"… _ **Not.**_ "

"Sonic… you're not like this. Something wrong. I can see that."

She continued to walk towards him, as he took a step back, more worry and concern traced his face.

" _ **Amy… wait a minute… I… I don't know what will happen I…**_ "

He suddenly stopped moving back.

His eyes rested on Infinite leaning up, his hand reaching out, a beam in it…

His rage spiked, and he let out a battle cry.

Amy dropped to the ground as he flew over her and slammed his fist into Infinite's head.

"Sonic!" She spun herself up, "NO!"

The illusion of Infinite disappeared… the red boxes slowly spinning in the air around them before blipping out of sight.

The shadow and the other illusions disappeared too.

Eggman watched from his eggpod… his fingers stroking his mustache.

"This is all good data… Good work, Infinite!"

Infinite floated by his side, fully healed and dusting off some soot from his shoulder.

"If it was the real me… He wouldn't have survived as long as he did."

"Switching out for a fake you after tearing the plane in half with one fell swoop. Pretty smart thinking, Infinite! You're beginning to impress me beyond belief!"

As though a doting father, Eggman gripped his hands together and held them by his face, smiling like a child on Christmas.

"I'm so glad I ran into you! Giving you those modifications and the Phantom Ruby really did _wonders_ to my scheming!"

"Hmph. Enough flattery and talk…" Infinite pivoted, still thinking about how his illusion reacted then.

Infinite can't create illusions of himself without placing a piece of his consciousness within it.

The other illusions were simply soulless.

This fact bothered him, but he let it be.

For now…

"Let's depart to the main forces."

"What?" Infinite looked riled up from that comment.

"If we let him recover, we'll never see the darkness we've implanted in him fully achieve its purpose!" he gripped his hand into a fist and moved threateningly closer to Eggman.

Above the smoke, the light radiated off his mask and sent a glare below…

* * *

"So… you're mad."

" _ **Undeniably… yeah.**_ "

"And… your body… moves on its own?"

" _ **Sometimes… if I'm mad enough.**_ "

He rotated his shoulders but kept his arms fairly down.

"So…" she put a finger to her mouth, and he looked back to her with a scowl.

"…Are you mad at me?"

" _ **I'm mad at everything. I can't control what irritates me.**_ "

"…Buuuttt…" she slowly moved the finger away from her mouth, then poked his nose. "You said you _can_ control it… if you really wanted too."

He glared so heavily that her finger shirked from playing further with his facial features.

He seemed to growl even, something she wasn't accustomed too.

She looked hurt that he would bear his teeth and scowl at her like she was the most annoying thing in the world and pouted cutely as she thrust her arms down straight to her sides.

"What is your issue!?"

" _ **Don't provoke me to tell you.**_ "

He leaned forward, his eyebrows dipping down even further to show his agitation.

"You're being a jerk! I'm just trying to understand what's going on… you're scaring me!"

" _ **If I'm so frightening..!"**_

He lurched forward again, this time quicker as she pulled back and gasped, almost falling over.

" _ **Then why are you still here!?**_ "

She pulled herself back… breathing as though about to cry again.

Seeing this, he regained some of his humanity, and stepped away, moving his hands back.

" _ **N.. No, Amy… I…**_ "

He looked at his hands.

"… _ **I can't control it.. but I don't want to be mad anymore.**_ "

She slowly got up, blinking her eyes and listening carefully this time to what he was saying.

"… _ **I don't want to hurt you… I don't want you being afraid of me."**_

He squinted his eyes shut and turned away, fisting his hands.

This was his worst nightmare.

This is what he tried to avoid back when the world split up… and he really did look like a monster.

"…Then…" Amy took a step closer, reaching out to him. "Let me help with that."

He glared again and held himself back from whacking her hand away.

She ducked,… opening her mouth a second before peeking through her half-closed eyes and looking to him and then his hand.

The hand shook as if two forces were controlling it.

He felt the soreness of clenching his teeth so tightly again, the quivering of every muscle in his hand… and slowly it bent to his will and he shot it back to his side.

" _ **It's too dangerous."**_ He sharply turned his head away.

"You've been saying that to me a lot lately…"

" _ **You should go. More of them will appear."**_

"Infinite?"

" _ **I don't know what happened there**_."

Sonic looked at the spot Infinite once was…

" _ **But I don't think that was the real him**_."

"What was it… then?"

She gripped his arm lightly.

The touch sent his body into a frenzy. Attack.

He turned to her but held everything back.

" _ **Get away from me**_ …"

It was low and harsh, and Amy slowly released his arm, stepping back.

"You should work on your tone." She tried to sound tough, but that comment really hurt her.

" _ **You're not listening to me…**_ "

"You're speaking through your teeth! How am I supposed to listen!?"

" _ **rrrRRRAAHHH!**_ "

His fist engaged a nearby building, sending a shockwave that pulsed all the way down, destroying and toppling thousands more that were aligned with the fist's path.

Amy looked spooked, her mouth pushing together and her eyes going wide.

She looked back to Sonic, smiling sheepishly. "Ooookay… Maybe I shouldn't sassily defend myself with a quip back everything you hurt my feelings…"

Sonic removed his hand from the air, lowering it to his side.

" _ **You should go**_."

"But then… who's going to calm you down?" she turned worriedly back to him, unable to leave his side when she knew he was suffering so greatly within himself.

" _ **You saw for yourself. I don't seem to be able to control my emotions**_." He looked down, panting again. " _ **And the more I sustain this form… I don't know how much longer I can… Redirect my violent tendencies."**_

He smiled to her suddenly, twiddling his fingers up to her face as she found it in herself to laugh.

"There you are!"

Her mouth opened wide into a beautiful grin, and for a second, he found himself staring and feeling the darkness slowly loosen from his core.

"… _ **What did you do?**_ "

" _ **Huh?"**_

" _ **I… felt… something**_." He touched his chest.

She looked down at his hand, before up and calmly smiling to him.

"Maybe I relaxed you."

" _ **Relaxed… me?**_ "

Amy moved a little closer, as he reflexed to staring at her again, but she slowly moved more cautiously and took his hand.

"So much tension… tsk, tsk, tsk." She clicked her tongue.

Slowly, she encircled her hand over his wrist, and lightly moved it up along his arm, and then down as she massaged some of the tightened muscles along his arm.

The sensation was driving his core wild.

Whatever she was doing, he felt his arm relaxing, and the anger in him start to cool down.

She looked up at his face, still smiling with hope, and massaged his hand.

"You know, I've always been pretty good at this." She gloated a bit. "I was always hoping to try it out on you someday… but I never imagined it going like this." She giggled.

He felt something in his heart quiver in fright at her words, before she moved from his arm… to his back, and began to massage around there.

His head shifted back and forth, his instinct still wanting to watch her, but she reached up and stopped his head, starting to massage his head.

His eyes… lowered at the sensation of the gentle but pressurized touch.

The darkness began to slowly lighten on his skin, before the vines tried to reach out to Amy's hand, slithering up, but dying out before they reach her.

"How's your anger now?" she tilted her head, her eyes still on the task at hand.

Pun intended, as her hands scaled from his head, taking a second to lightly give two strokes to his ears, something she had always wanted to do for a long time now; and down to massage his shoulders.

He felt his head lean down and forward.

" _ **I… don't think I could have done this… myself.**_ "

"Well, of course, silly! Hehe, you can't massage yourself."

He remained silent.

" _ **That's…**_ "

His blue fur returned to him, and he stepped away from her, stepping to try and turn himself around as all the exhaustion of his body and strength started to pile up all at once.

"What I meant."

He fell forward.

Amy caught him instantly, struggling to keep him up, she humorously went slowly down with him and laid his head to her lap.

"Sonic?"

"…I… Don't think… I could have calmed… myself down… Thank you… Amy."

She grew worried, hearing sounds coming behind them.

"Sonic… of course, but… but we need to get out of here."

"In.. that state.. I.. couldn't.. think straight.. or .. even... control… what I was feeling."

He was fading fast.

Amy shifted her head around.

"Sonic… Now's not really the time! I love that you're thanking me and all, I really do want to listen to how it was, but for right now—"

Infinite's voice roared over the war-torn area.

"If you let him escape now, he'll only come back at his full strength!"

"Sonic!" Amy worriedly pulled him up, still seeing he wasn't able to fully register what she was saying exactly. "We have to go… now!"

She didn't regret relaxing him, but pushing him up sent pain throughout Sonic, and he immediately opened his eyes to have them glowing a bright white again, and his fur turn dark at the sound of Infinite's voice becoming more clearer.

"Oh no! Not again!"

" _We have to kill him now!_ And his little friends! If you want to harness the power, finish your foolish studies and just let me end this now! We have him!"

Sonic gripped Amy's waist, yanking her up to him.

"Woah!" she was shocked and in slight pain at how tightly he was gripping her waist, as he hurled their bodies out of the area and straight into nowhere.

Eggman turned to Infinite, "I say when we kill him..." he shifted a lever and his eggmobile turned around, his head moving like an owl's fluid head movement as he never stopped looking at Infinite. "We let it grow first... then we take it... implant it in you so you at least have the data to control it.. and become _truly_ more powerful than Sonic ever could be."

Infinite turned his head away.

"Sound about right?" Eggman's teeth glistened as he widened his devilish grin. "Then you'll never have to worry about 'what if'?"

Referring to what Infinite's illusion experienced, Infinite's eye's twitched in rage as he held himself back from destroying the doctor.

He flew off quickly anyway, snickering with owl-like 'hoot' anyway.

* * *

Within the forest, he crashed and began to swipe at anything in sight.

Amy wasn't able to even get close to him.

He fell to his knees, swiping pitifully at a tree before smashing a boulder with a dark energy blast.

" _ **HE LIVED**_!"

He cried out.

" _ **HE LIVED AND HE'S MOCKING ME**_!"

Amy's fear was no match for her love for Sonic.

Although everything in her wanted to stay back, she leapt at Sonic, feeling him try and pull her off, she let him throw her down, looming over her.

Panting in her own strength starting to fail her, being taken aback by him being so far gone in his anger, she moved herself up enough to grab his head and throw him to her lap, keeping him there and trying to soothe him by stroking his quills.

He resisted. Shifting and trying to get up, but she kept pushing him down.

"Calm… erfph! Down… shhh…shhh… Ouch! Quit it!"

Finally, Dark Sonic seemed to regain some of himself, hearing her cry of slight pain.

He breathed loudly, before shouting out in further rage.

" _ **I'm hurting you!**_ "

"Yes, you are!"

" _ **Dang it**_!"

"Yeah, dang the pain!"

"… _ **What? What are you even-!?**_ "

"I'm yelling cause you're yelling!"

" _ **Well, stop that!**_ "

"Okay!"

Amy shouted again.

For a moment… there was peace. Sonic's chest rose up and down, his body mostly motionless besides that. Feeling the weight of his body on hers… at least, on her legs, was a new sensation Amy never thought she'd be having.

Up… down… up… down… for some reason, it made her slightly uneasy.

Her leg was getting warm from the moist breath he kept breathing out on it… one hand gripped her back and held it's hold on her… making her back tense up in hopes of outstretching his grasp. But it held… and would probably leave imprints.

She finally saw what made her toss and turn in her recovery room for so long…

The tiniest vines of darkness… slowly trying to wiggle their way free of the aura from his dark fur and make their way to her.

She stared at them… frozen in fear before she stopped stroking his quills and looked down.

Her eyes were covered in the shadows of the trees… trying to think this through.

"Let me try and get this straight." She swallowed, still wishing for some water right about now.

And to give some to poor Sonic… she couldn't stand to see him suffering like this.

She couldn't stand just sitting around and doing nothing to help him either…

"Your mean behavior is being caused by something deep inside you… something you've allowed to possess you at given times… that's hard to free yourself of because… because you can't focus enough on breaking out of it. It's feeding off your emotions and making them control you rather than you control it."

Sonic didn't say anything, just kept breathing.

"…Okay. I think I kinda… sorta, maybe… get a little of what you're saying." She lifted her head then, seeing the vines weren't able to grow any further.

This gave her some courage, narrowing her eyes, not sure what would happen.

"So,… you've been intensely feeling anger… and that's what it's mostly feeding off of… but what if it fed off of something else? Something you could control? Something that wouldn't give it any power over you?"

"… _ **I don't understand… what you're saying."**_ He sounded like he was trying so desperately to hold himself back. It nearly broke Amy's heart to hear how much he was straining against going berserk again… She felt the pollen in the air circle around them and shine in the light as she hopefully looked back to him… unable to see the expression on his face.

" _Sonic_ …"

" _ **Grr…haaa..haa… graa.. haah…hahh.."**_

She felt his body tremor a second, before stopping and seeming fine, before tremoring again.

All the love in her heart rose to her throat and came out her eyes.

"Oh, Sonic… if there's one thing I know that no one can stay mad at…"

She turned him around, seeing the pain bleeding out his face, his eyes closed with absolute concentration in them.

" _ **I can't… I can't feel anything but… hate… and rage… and pain…**_ "

She dipped her head down.

" _ **I… I hear you… and suddenly… I can breathe. Your touch… even hearing you and feeling you breathe… I let myself fall into it because I didn't feel anything when I did. If it took over my emotions and used them as power… I didn't know until after the fact. When I could feel them… Gah… ahh… again…"**_

 _Her lips part under the soft press… of lightly kissing his cheek._

" _I believe no one can stay mad at a kiss forever."_

Sonic's eyes shot open with the emerald green she loved so much. His whole body seemed to remain frozen as the oily texture of his quills withdrew the coloration back into the depths of his core, and Sonic The Hedgehog lifted his head from her lap, slowly leaning away from her in what appeared to be a bit of frazzled surprised.

She tightly pressed her lips together in a fine line and put a hand over her mouth as she held in a buzzing laugh.

It came out kinda ridiculous, her trying to hold it in and the sound still passing without her wanting too.

He reared up and looked around, then looked at his body and realized he was fully in control of himself again.

The darkness… was gone.

"What..?" he looked around again, "I was feeling… despair. Like I couldn't be the hero everyone wanted me to be. Wait, why am I saying this!?" he looked extremely unaware of how truly embarrassed he was.

Amy burst out laughing, gripping her stomach and leaning herself back to let all the tension of the past moments out.

"I must have… lost touch with everything." He continued to examine himself, even checking under his shoe.

This made Amy roar with laughter that was sporadic, sometimes fully forward and unable to breathe, or completely arched back with her whole body moving up and down in jerks at laughing so hard.

Wide-eyed, he stayed silent and nervous… before narrowing his eyes as his fur grew darker again.

"Stop that."

She laughed.

"It's not funny."

She laughed some more.

"What are you _**laughing at!?"**_

She stopped, but a smile was still openly upon her face as she threw a hand to her forehead.

"I always thought… you'd run or freak out… or something." She let a few more giggles go before getting up. "But… you were… just so amazed you changed back,.. you didn't even react."

He frowned with his teeth showing, stepping back.

"What are you feeling now?" she stepped forward, seeing him take two more steps back.

" _ **..I'm… I'm not fearing anything."**_ He looked about ready to run.

His white eye sockets were back, so was the dark fur.

"…Oh?" she looked at his dark form, then back up at him. "You sure you're not feeling… anything? Nothing at all?" she played dumb, but it was extremely sarcastic.

He dipped the middle that bridged his eyes down lower, " _ **I'm warning you… Stop laughing**_."

She moved closer, "You totally changed the subject. Whether that was your intention or not, you prioritized returning to your original form more so than the fact that I pecked your cheek." She smirked, swaying her arms as she moved closer.

"But hey, it was probably my bad you shifted back so quickly… I don't know why you're changing all the time now, Sonic… but I'll do _everything_ in my power…" she smiled at that word. "To make sure you come back to your senses…"

He moved away, but she was able to get close enough to hop and kiss his chin.

" _ **..Enh?!"**_

He stumbled.

She forced herself not to laugh as he fell over.

He got himself halfway up before she bent down and squatted in front of him.

She sweetly lifted his nose up, since his head was angled down, and startled him as he blinked his eyes.

She dropped to her knees and moved down, kissing him above his lips and on the bridge of his angry little eyebrow bridge.

This immediately threw him out of his dark form, and he stumbled back, breathing hard again as his composure was lost.

He banged his head against a tree and ducked with a hand reaching up to grip it.

She once again had to force herself to not make a sound of laughter.

"You mentioned you didn't feel enough for everyone? That you failed as a hero… is that what you meant? That you didn't feel able to live up to everyone's expectations? Before you left?"

Sonic kept the grip on his head, moving his face away from view.

"… Or did you feel that when we all thought you died… that we failed you?"

He still remained silent and motionless, not looking at her.

"…Well…" she suddenly saw the world spin around her, her eyes looking up and her eyelids lowering from the heat and the events of the day finally waning on her body. "You'll always be enough… for…me."

"How… _**how would you know what I feel?**_ "

She collapsed.

" _ **A**_ MY!"

He snapped out of his dark form again, speedily catching her and holding her in his arms.

Worry replaced all other emotions… even if he didn't understand what to call them, or even if what Amy said was true.

Racing home, he knew he didn't have much time left.

Jumping in the already broken window, he landed in her room and struggled to get his weakened knees up again, falling at her bedside, being able to place her there before forcing himself up onto it.

He breathed hard… the sweat of the day glistening as the sun began to turn to dusk.

He looked out the window, before back at Amy.

He could vaguely remember… the sunlight through the smog and smoke… resting on her like a beacon of hope.

In the dark, his face is unseen, but he slowly leans over her…

Inches from her own cheeks… he leans a little more down.

Then he collapses to the side of her, unable to follow through whatever intention had come over him.

(A small… 'taste'… of what's in store. Dear reader…~ _**Dare**_ to continue?)


	3. Chapter 3

_**Dark**_ Sonic Forces

Ch. 3

By: Cutegirlmayra (I'm doing a livestream on Instagram and a Discord event for Q&As. Please PM if you'd like to join me! :Db It's gonna be good~ Hopefully, lol. Well, I have this entire thing laid out. But I should state that this was voted to be a 'Make-out Sonamy' so please be aware of what you're getting yourself into. I don't write or read inappropriate material, but that don't mean I won't write a kiss or two. Juuuuust letting you know. A 'heads-up' if you will for the sensitive hearts of which I am a part of lol Don't worry, there's build, so everyone's still mostly in character- but that's kinda why the 'dark and uncontrollable emotions' have a play in this too xD helps lead into more AU scenarios… Enjoy~)

 _Warm breath._

Then that uncomfortable feeling that something was given to her… a dark presence that tried to squirm into her dreams…

But even in her discomfort, she turned to her side and felt something solid and real. What was it?

Amy flickered her eyes open, seeing something blue and peaceful resting by her bedside…

Her eyes widened all at once and she rose up, shocked by Sonic's sleeping, gently rising and lowering body as he slept beside her.

She usually would see him sleeping while running along a route trying to find him. He wasn't always silently huffing a breath or two, but in fact, he would be snoring up a brand new storm most days.

She immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was too tired to even startle from his sleep at her rapid movement from surprise at seeing his face so close to her own.

She felt herself and checked to make sure she was actually awake and presence, feeling for bruises or cuts and doing medical assessments. Once she was cleared, she looked over Sonic but dared not touch her sleeping prince.

'How'd he get here..?' she gently tilted her head to see how truly worn out he appeared, and her heart broke at the sight of it. '…He must be kinda hungry…' she ignored her first question and decided to act instead. Kindness was always a big factor in all she ever did, besides pursuing her own hopes and dreams.

Carefully maneuvering herself out of bed, she began to realize that no matter what noise or movement she created, he would remain fast asleep.

With a tender smile, slightly humoring the situation, she crawled out without much consideration and looked back to make sure he was still sound asleep…

He was… his blue fur was fully restored against the white covers of her bed and pillow… his gloves were slightly more grey from the dirt and soot, and she mentally noted to clean up after this whole ordeal.

That's when she remembered she hadn't showered.

After caring for her needs, she went to fix something up for Sonic! A nice meal… a breakfast fit for a growing hero!

"Eggs and Bacon~" Amy sang slightly, bobbing in motion to the tune in her head as she flipped the bacon and stirred the eggs.

When she was done, she made a glass of nice cold milk and headed back to her room.

"Woah."

She turned around to a voice that matched Tails. He was wagging his tail at her leftovers…

"They're all yours." She winked, and he happily rubbed his hands together.

"Oh, boy! Thanks, Amy! Uhh… are you having dinner in bed today?" he looked to see her tray of goodies as she sweatdropped a moment. "Y-…You could say that." She didn't know if Sonic would want his presence... in her room... to be known like that. So, she decided to keep it a secret and move on.

She was fibbing a lot these past few days…

When she entered her room again, turning around to close the door, she was startled yet again by seeing Sonic stir and lift from his place by the bedside.

She blushed at the image… like an emerging butterfly from its cocooned sleep.

* * *

Sonic couldn't understand what was going on.

One minute, he was leaning over Amy… the next?

He's lying on her bed…

Groggily, he felt his muscles move himself up from the comfy and soft touch of the covers below him and turned to see the indent of where Amy once was.

He rubbed his head, wondering how he was gonna get out of this one before smelling something awfully enticing, drifting through the room.

He turned his head… seeing the flustered expression of Amy Rose.

So… she was here.

He carefully examined her a moment, his eyes rapidly scanning everywhere along her for any sign of injuries. Cuts, scratches, bruises, gashes… anything he might have accidentally done to her during his struggles in the forest…

She seemed fairly… pretty.

She was alright, anyway. And that's all that mattered.

He let out a sigh of relief and smiled at last, "Hi." He lowered his hand on his face and turned around, getting ready to shift his feet under him and step off the bed.

"… _Hi_ …" Amy's breathless response paused him in his movements, and he looked back to her.

It was incredibly awkward… seeing her eyes droop down like he was the vision of a perfect dream to her.

It was hard not to throw a mocking joke out into the open either… he had to refrain himself and simply closed his eyes to chuckle in his throat.

"Ack…" he rubbed his neck, feeling the sore dryness that spread like wounded cry inside it.

"…Oh!" He figured Amy snapped out of her fawning fantasies and rushed over to him immediately, showing him what his nose had picked up on. "Milk, eggs, and bacon! I know you like your meat." She politely placed it on her bedstand, and then sat down to stare at him again.

"…Thanks." He side-glanced her, not sure how to react and not wanting any follow-up questions as he decided it best to start eating and stop talking.

She closed her eyes in delight as he picked up the milk and started chugging, letting a loose puff of air show his satisfaction at the cold drink and reached for the bacon.

"…How do you feel?"

Amy's inquiry left him wanting to fake a choke, but instead, he just kept eating.

"Fwine." He spoke through a full mouth, making her pout.

"Sonic," her tone turned from doting wife to scolding mother instantaneously. "Manners."

He rolled his eyes, drinking more of the milk and then wiping it off with his arm. He smiled jokingly to her, "I'm good." He nodded and continued to eat.

"…Try the eggs." She scooted closer, picking up her legs and holding them as she excited looked at the plate.

Once again,… the air felt tense as Sonic slowly shifted his eyes to her.

"…Okay. Nevermind." She looks away, embarrassed at her over-eagerness to please him and moved off the bed.

He just followed her with his eyes,… before smiling at her cute but strange antics and took the fork off the plate.

When some eggs fell loose from the fork, he frowned in annoyance, lowering his eyelids. Finally, he just tossed the fork back down and used his fingers.

She was distracted from looking at him anyway, he could get away with a little finger-food action.

She was nervous, not wanting to make this more awkward it looked like, and held her hands together and close. Standing with her back towards Sonic, she hung close to the center of the room, shaking her bundled and held hands together as she looked for something to focus on.

He smiled through another sip of milk, 'At least she's trying…' he thought her attempt to act normal was humorous, to say the least, but still sweet in its own way.

Something finally caught her attention, but Sonic ignored it and moved on.

There was a scraping sound, and finally, he paused with his mouth open to look up and see her with a pencil and notepad.

* * *

Taking her clipboard of Rebellion Notes she had taken to plan her days and keep track of things, she flipped the page and started doodling Sonic.

She tried to make every line perfect, even exact and would work through the silhouette first and then try and erase once everything was circled out more.

She was having difficulty on the curve of his spines… when she looked up to try and re-see what she wanted to draw and only noticed her subject staring back at her.

His smile was contagious, and she ducked behind her board when she got caught.

Blushing…

"What'cha got there?" Sonic charmingly leaned forward and lifted his head up, turning it to try and look over and see what she was drawing.

"I-I'm… I'm not very good." She admitted, modestly moving a piece of her pink quill back behind her but it just flopped back in place. "I didn't want to disturb you… I mean-! Y-… You just woke up and all!" she hugged the drawing, not daring to let him see it but also oddly embarrassed by it too.

She turned her head away as Sonic's interest perked, and he chuckled again.

"Drawing me while eating is kinda creepy too. But I'll allow it, just this once." He winked at her, before holding out a piece of bacon and devouring it by holding it up and letting it slide into his mouth, chomping on it all the while.

"…Yeah, it's a real treat." Amy sarcastically stated, seeing him lower his head down and chew with his mouth open, biting down hard on the piece of meat before looking back at her and shrugging.

"Whaa?" he spoke with food in his mouth again, and she couldn't help but laugh a little at it.

"You're disgusting." She flopped the picture down, and he tried to lean over again and take a look.

She opened one of her closed eyes and playfully pulled the clipboard back up to her face, "Noo..!" she protested, making him crook an eyebrow up and mock her indirectly.

"Whatever you say." He gave up trying to see the image she was drawing and just kept eating.

When he was done, he felt something off in his shoes, having them down on the floor now.

"Well, I-… woah." He sat back down when he felt a clump of something and took his shoe off, trying to shake out whatever was in them.

Pieces of dark grey rocks and pebbles of clotted dirt came pattering out onto her floor and rug.

She gasped, seeing how filthy he was. "I'll clean those for you!" she placed the clipboard down and walked towards him, bending down to the bed and offering her arms out to him. "I'll make them good as new." She tried to convince him, hoping he'd part with them a moment for her to get him cleaned up.

He looked up with a bit of innocence and confusion, apparently having never given someone his laundry before.

"…Will you give them right back?" he inquired, which only made her scrunch her neck back a bit and hold in another playful laugh.

"You're so funny, Sonic!" she blushed and felt successful as he blinked at her once more, seeing no sign of ill-intent, and took the other shoe off. He handed them to her like it was a sign of trust, and then peered up.

"When can I get them back?"

"Your socks and gloves too, Sonic."

"Whaa..?" he seemed shaken by that response and moved back, squeamish again.

"Go on. I'll give them right back."

"…"

"What's the matter?"

"Will you… will you look away?"

"… _Sonic!_ "

She moved his shoes onto one hand, a finger to hold each one, before placing both her hands to her hips.

"It's just your socks and gloves! Don't make a big deal out of it!" She reprimanded.

He pouted at her in a bit of rebellion… but then slowly took a cautious look at his socks…

"It's not like you've never taken them off before…"

"…"

"…Sonic?"

She flinched back subtly, "…You… You should shower too."

"…"

He just kept staring at his feet.

"…Sonic, you will remove your dirty clothes, and take a bath." She offered her free hand, ready to get the articles off him if needs be.

Finally, he took a deep breath and held it, removing his socks and then carefully his gloves.

Amy was used to what was underneath, it was the same as her, so she didn't care about his stubby, clumped feet and his bare hands, seeing smaller nails than she had on her own anyway.

"Oh… by the way." She looked curiously up at his face, "Why were you sleeping in my-"

He tossed them to her, cutting her off before she could continue her question.

Annoyed and letting them fall into her open hand, She took them and nodded, deciding not to ask that just yet.

Worried she was making the situation worse, she became much more joyful and tried to change the mood. "Good! Now, off you go! You—and your clothes—smell bad. I'll get the bedsheets later." She smiled warmly, turning back into the housewife look Sonic perceived and walked off as he stared after her.

"…You want me to leave?"

"You have to take a bath!" she was about to open the door, not seeing anything wrong with it until…

She immediately took her hand off the knob and turned around, seeing Sonic's head tilted back and a look of 'really?' pasted upon it.

"If you leave my room looking like that-!" her mind raced to what the other rebellion members would think…

"…Now you get it." Sonic rolled his eyes, having apparently thought long before that removing his clothing in front of her was a little risqué…

"J-just-!" she was trying to think fast, slamming a hand into her face in an attempt to punish herself for not thinking of that sooner. "Just run really, really fast down to the showers!"

"…Whatever you say, Amy." He got up, stretching a bit since he didn't have the chance too before. "But I'm just surprised you didn't think of this situation sooner."

She blushed as she parted some of her fingers to get another look at him…

She didn't really understand why it would be suggestive… she understood what people might think—since he'd be coming out of her room… but not the part of him being…

Well, he was always naked, but nothing showed through fur. Everyone knew that.

"I-I-I'm just being more mature than you, is all!" she puffed out, trying to defend her honor somewhat and went to peek outside the door. "If anyone asks, I'll just say I saw you come back and asked for them. Besides, you don't seem to know how to wash your own clothes anyway."

"I wouldn't say that." Sonic continued to stretch, but there was a strange grin on his face, as though he was thinking about something else as he spoke… "I rinse them off in streams or lakes. The smell gets mostly off, anyway…"

Amy dared not to ask about the stinky water smell, but figured his clothes were long overdue for a _real_ washing…

"This might take time." She concluded and turned back around. "I'll walk out first." She instructed, and carefully began to move before-…

"…You really aren't attracted to me being completely without… anything on?"

She slammed the door and hyperventilated a moment, pressing herself up against the door as her face turned a bright red.

She hadn't even thought about it!

She thought herself mature, even back when she was 12 she thought she practically was a lady. But being just a bit older now… she wondered why she wasn't as affected as she probably should be in this scenario.

"I just… I don't know!" she admitted, shrugging in her embarrassment and not looking back at him. "I'm just used to you, I guess! I didn't seem any harm in it!"

"Uh-huh..?" He seemed intrigued at that, leaning forward and teasing her slightly as he rose another eyebrow up. "…You are a mystery, Amy… I thought of all people, you'd be the easiest to see things that way…"

That way..?

She didn't know why that phrase bothered her so much, but she shook her head and tried not to squint her eyes to think too hard on it.

"I-I-I'm leaving!" she looked back slightly, pouting. "D-don't say I'm 'easy'… that's rude."

"…Sorry." Sonic leaned back up, taking on a different expression and seeming to realize what he said was actually kinda rude… He rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "I shouldn't have said that."

"At least you're aware…" she sighed out.

"Yeah, well… you're not a little girl anymore. I need to be more aware of you, sometimes…"

That also felt weird to hear, but she looked down and felt slightly excited to hear that Sonic saw her as a lady, and not a child anymore.

"O-oh. G-good." She creaked the door open again. "Meet back here when you're done showering, I'll have your clothes ready in an hour or two."

"WHAT!?"

Agitated, she slammed the door again and pivoted to stomp her foot at him. "Sonic! Please! This is a covert operation! Our reputations are at stake!"

"…You mean mine is at stake." He countered, a friendly competitive challenge on his face.

"Pfft! Stop making it seem worse than it is!"

"…Isn't it?"

"Ohh!" she opened the door, "Just hurry up and take a bath!"

"For 2 hours..?" he whined, and she just rolled her eyes and smiled, leaving him to his own means and walking towards the laundry station.

* * *

The wind behind Sonic felt slightly more free than ever before. He didn't feel anything was weighing him down and it almost felt childish to run with his hands and feet completely exposed.

Amy was right, it's not like anyone would care, but it was an odd sight. Culturally, you just wear them. At least the shoes.

Sonic wasn't much into 'properness' but he did respect cultural. He had traveled so much, it was ingrained into him to be considerate of other lifestyles and beliefs.

But he absolutely loved his simple life. Full of excitements and dangers around every corner.

For a moment, he forgot about the spiraling darkness he was harboring within…

A huge, goofy grin was on his face as he finally halted in front of the men's showers.

There were too many people… he wouldn't be comfortable here.

He scanned around, trying to avoid eye contact and realized he was sticking out like a sore thumb. A celebrity like him? Having gone missing in action for 6 months?

He raced up to the ceiling, walking the beams and peering down to try and find a shower area that wasn't occupied.

"Shoot." Sonic muttered to himself, "Amy'll be mad if I come back to the room smelling like a warthog…" he tip-toed a moment before his eyes glistened at a locker room door titled 'private shower'.

"That's gotta be open." He smirked and looked around.

In this heavily piled bunker, there were a lot of soldiers. He'd have to move swiftly and stick to the shadows.

"Whelp, time to be stealthy!" he whispered to himself as he climbed down the beams.

Darting around, causing some men to wrap towels around themselves and ask if a 'draft' in an underground tunnel was even possible, he finally managed to slip his way into the private shower.

Looking around, it didn't look all that fancy, but it was something…

There were some towels to the side, a soap bar, the usual.

He locked the door and sighed.

"It's been a while this I've acted this domesticated…" he hunched forward, disappointed that he was obeying so willingly.

He then looked up at the low light above the room. '…But she's done a lot for me… recently.'

He scratched behind his head, feeling his nails more predominantly than before and brought his hand back to his face. "Hmm." He slightly glared at them and turned to a cabinet by the mirror.

He searched a bit before finding some clippers in a drawer. He turned to the mirror, then looked at the sink… shaking it off, he just adjusted the length a bit and cut some of it off, scratching behind his head to feel any difference.

Felt better now. More like how he liked it.

He put those away and looked for anything else he wasn't thinking about.

Q-Tips,… he may need cotton sticks to wash his ears…

He put a box of those down and kept digging,… he had about 2 hours anyway…

"Why does it take so long to wash a simple pair of socks, gloves, and the best shoes in the dang world?" he muttered to himself, just making jokes before seeing some shaving cream.

He humorously touched his chin, "Hmmm…" he squinted his eyes… "I'll pass!" he tossed it back down, snickering inwardly to himself.

"Oh-ho-ho!" he excitedly brought out some cologne and checked out the bottle. Standing upright again, his nose bounced a moment over it before reading the generic title. "Men's Body Spray…" he popped the lid off like a bottle and smelled, "Pfft! Sure to make the ladies faint." He mocked but was about to put it back before a thought entered his mind.

"…Hmm." He pulled it back out and looked it over…

"…Natural musk is a must." He nodded, huffing at the idea of even thinking about using it.

He was once again about to put it away… but took one last whiff and angrily put it on the sink with the rest of the items he had collected.

"Hmph." He ignored his decision then and walked into the shower.

"Wah-OH!" It was _way_ too cold…

Not being used to these things, he sped out and shook himself off from the water.

"What kind of-!?" he peeked back into the shower, seeing the water still spraying and gave it a death glare. "I hate you in a bowl of dipped earth…" he spat out, "And I hate you through a spiked hose too…" he was referring to his dislike of water, before seeing the red and blue coloring on the dial.

He looked back up at the shower, before closing that door and opening the other.

As he adjusted it, supposing red means hot, he felt the water and then smiled.

"Ah. There is a system to this… controlling water… madness." He entered and started letting the water hit his chest and run its way through his fur.

He shook out his head and dipped it under the water as well.

Closing his eyes, he let out a sound of relief, finally able to start and clean himself 'decently' as Amy would say, for once.

He found the soap to smell weird and was all at once glad he had chosen the cologne…

While he continued to figure out how to get his individual quills lathered in shampoo, he found his mind racing back to the fight…

His process turned slower… less rushed as he wiped some of the falling suds off his arm…

Infinite mocking him… his outburst on the gurney… Amy…

He couldn't help but pause a moment, looking a little up from his thoughts as her words repeated in his mind…

 _"I believe no one can stay mad at a kiss forever."_

His eyes drooped…

He felt his hand twitch and slowly pulled it up to the bridge of his eyes…

His eyes shifted, looking at nothing but remembering the sensation…

Under the darkness… He felt along his chest and shoulder… He couldn't feel anything. It was alluring that way. No emotion. No exhaustion. Less drama during the fight.

But the second he shifted back… all of that came rushing back and he realized it wasn't nothingness he was feeling… it was being numb to his own body. Something was inside him… controlling him.

His head suddenly violently whiplashed and he gripped it, banging himself into the wall adjacent to him. "Ahhh…!"

He trembled as his fur turned slightly dark… fading in and out as a memory resurfaced…

 _From the moon._

Infinite had tortured him, sure… but Eggman had run some funny experiments on him too. Laughing… All Sonic could recollect was laughing… as painful spikes of energy flooded into him and left him blacking out.

He hadn't remembered much… but just then, he seemed to have an episode of recalling that painful experience, and seeing a squirming substance be lowered down to him… a black form that would protrude little vines out and in all over itself…until one of them grew out so long that it looked like it was reaching down to him.

His vision was blurry… he had blacked out before knowing what was happening.

"That substance…" Sonic growled out through his teeth, kicking as he sat at the bottom of the shower.

The water kept running…

He breathed hard and put a hand up to block the water from restraining his breath.

He leaned his head back and turned his head away to let the water rinse out the rest of the shampoo's residue.

"Eggman… he must of done something to me… put that… that _thing_ inside of me." He touched his chest, feeling something… he knew it wasn't an emotion.

Something wanted out… pulled itself back in… and then tried again to push out.

"Ugh." He shook his head down, "It's like Dark Gaia all over again." He tried to balance himself and lift up through a bar on the side of the shower, hoisting himself up and checking the clock as he moved the sliding door of the shadow.

His little 'episode' lasted a little longer than it felt…

"Dang…" he dropped his head again, before forcing it back up and running his hand through his quills. "At least I'm not late."

He cut the water off and grabbed the towel, careful to not slip and slide since he didn't have any traction on his shoes anymore.

He used the cotton sticks on his ears, vaguely feeling he could hear a bit better now but that was only to distract his mind from the previous instance.

He fixed himself up wrung out his quills, before leaning over the sink and feeling his stomach turn.

Maybe it was the foggy mist from having not turned on the fan… but he was feeling faint.

He looked at himself and checked to make sure he didn't have raccoon eyes or black underneath his lids.

He was glad he didn't look too beat up… that darkness that encased him seemed to protect him somewhat from too many injuries.

He looked at his fur, back to blue…

He sighed and felt like he was going to throw up.

"…Dang it… Shoot…" he outstretched his arms and clung to the sink, lowering his head to await if any of that delicious breakfast wanted to make a return appearance again…

When nothing happened, he finally shifted his attention to the cologne.

"…Why'd I even bother." He thought out loud to himself.

He stared at it… thinking about what Amy said about him smelling…

He took the cologne and didn't give it a second thought, just sprayed and got it over with.

He didn't particularly think it made him 'smell like a man' but if it made Amy act funny it would be worth it.

He was surprised she didn't think differently of him… he had wondered if she'd catch on but for the longest time, she innocently continued to act as though she didn't care.

…Did she not care about an 'all natural' man in her room?

He laughed, even though his stomach still was upset, he found that kinda funny.

Amy? The Amy Rose? Not once thinking anything about having him passed out in her bed or him taking his shoes off? Even down to his sock and gloves, she hadn't acted funny till he finally pointed it out.

He let her figure it out on her own, not wanting to state the obvious, but wondered why she hadn't thought anything…

He looked up in the mirror, checking himself out a second.

He hadn't lost his good looks…

"Eh, she was distracted." He concluded and wiped the mirror off.

Then it hit him.

His eyes widened.

She hadn't acted any particular way after kissing him either…

He looked down, a bit spooked.

"…Yeeahh… how 'bout that." He turned suspiciously to the mirror again, shifting his head towards it. "…She laughed…" he looked a little upset by that, feeling the shock of that moment come back and the dark substance inside him react to it.

"… _ **She laughed**_ **…"** he glared… and the dark fur came back over him… white eyes pierced the mirror's reflection, and long, dark strands moved like a wispy outline of himself…

"…She laughed." He closed his eyes and smiled, nonchalantly dismissing the emotion. The darkness melted away, almost shrieking in surprise at how quickly it was reduced back to being a small thing implanted inside him. He snickered and laughed, lifting his hand to his face. "Haha! She was only playin' me! Has she grown up that much? That kissing me isn't even a big deal anymore? Well, it's not like we had before but-" he kept trying to talk it out, something he never thought he'd ever need to do.

But being trapped in one location… forced him to stop and think more than act.

He was always constantly moving… now it was his thoughts and emotions that kept shifting within himself…

While his body was forced to remain relatively still…

A huge knock came from the door and Sonic turned around.

"Hey! Are you gonna be a while, bud?!" someone angrily hollered.

"…Just a sec." Sonic smiled sheepishly, sweating a little in awkward nerves as he realized he was still in need of an escape plan.

He smelled good now… by most people's standards, anyway. And he tried to clean well so as not to be scolded the next time he saw Amy.

Looking back at his countenance… he knew the darkness inside him was like a ticking time bomb…

He couldn't tell if he'd let it run rampant again… or if he'd hold it back until at least being safety away from his friends.

"You're quite useful." He spoke to himself, smiling as he saw the mirror fog up again. "…But I'm the master of my own will… you can't have my body without my will."

The mirror filled up with mist, covering his form as he moved away, looking a little psychotic for a moment… frowning at the mirror.

He then tilted his head, closing his eyes and smiling with a signature 'heh' before looking to the door.

"Be out in a Sonic second!"

* * *

Amy sat on top of the dryer next to the one tumbling Sonic's freshly washed clothes. It had taken forever to get the swamp smell off his socks, another just to deal with the shoes… and finally, his gloves were the easiest to manage.

She had removed the buckles to shine them and was doing so with a lazy and exhausted look on her face.

There were bags under her eyes. Clearly, she didn't get enough sleep these last few nights.

She wondered if Sonic felt the same…

Because one dryer was spinning, the one next to her vibrated and shuffled lightly beside it, causing her to feel that as she shined the golden buckles.

The bumpy seat was ignored, however, thinking back on waking up to Sonic in her bed.

Why was he there..? He did seem pretty exhausted, but shouldn't he have been even _more_ tired than her? It was strange… he woke up alive and well, but she was expecting him to need to be taken care of…

When the dryer stopped, her little 'ride' did as well and she looked down to check if they were really dry or not.

"Third times the charm." She mused, hopping down and opening the clear shield that had condensation all over it.

She took out the socks first, the worst of all, and dared to sniff…

"Ahhh~" her eyelids bounced as they quickly shifted down. "I thought it couldn't happen. But here you are. Smelling like heaven." She put the socks over her shoulder and took out the gloves, sniffing them and melting into the warmth they gave off. "Ahhhh!" she rubbed her head into them happily, "You're just like a dream!" she then excitedly reached for the shoes.

Luckily, they weren't scraped up or banged up by the washer or dryer. She was worried when they came out of the washer but was glad to see they formed anew when taken out of the dryer. "And you… friend?" she placed her nose humorously up to the tip of the opening of the shoe. "Or foe?" she stuffed her nose in, burrowing a little to sniff.

"Ahh-haha!" she kicked her feet from below and behind her. "You smell good too!" she closed the door and began to shine the shoes, really digging the rag in there and making sure they shined that beautiful red glint she loved so much.

She made sure they were so shiny, she could be able to see Sonic a mile away now!

After reattaching the buckles back on, she admired her handiwork. "If he doesn't marry me after this, I don't know _what_ else will convince him!" She happily, with a squeal of excitement, took off to leave the laundry area…

But then stopped.

Her foot softly came back down as she turned around…

She studied the shoes…

"…I wonder…" she hurriedly hopped onto another washer, taking her own boots off and slowly slipping her feet into his shoes…

They were huge!

But not so big as to leave her unable to move in them.

She took off the other one and did the same thing, then… slowly… tried to lift herself down to the ground.

The second her toes touched the ground in his shoes… she felt the comfortable soles and how they completely supported the arch of her foot, the comfy feeling of soft underneath her was like padding that formed perfectly to her shape and design.

Her eyes drooped and she melted into them, stepping a few quick steps before slowing her pace.

If these fit just right, she might be tempted to steal them. If they were snug, she would have wanted to dart off and see what they were like to run in.

But sadly, though that was her original idea if she ran in them… she would have stumbled due to their largeness.

The point of his shoes would have made her 'pigeon-toed' run a severe injury hazard.

She would be tripping before she could even start an evenly paced jog.

"Aww…" she lowered her arms in disappointment, before turning the toes in, a girly signature of hers and smiled with a faint blush at how cute the shoes looked on her.

"…Maybe me and Sonic have more in common than I thought." She admired the shoes, liking the look and feel of them enclosing around her the skin of her feet.

She heard a bang of a door, someone entering with a basket, and quickly ducked down.

She took off the shoes as quickly and quietly as she could, slipping on her boots and struggling to make sure they were on right.

She hit them lightly against the ground to make sure they were secure, and then speedily ducked while running towards the door.

She made it out alive!

She just had to maneuver the halls…

Luckily, she had left when no one seemed to be waking up much yet.

But now there was a herd of them…

Looking around, she decided to hide the items and go for her sheets. If Sonic was there, she would explain her strategy, and he might even be impressed!

When she got back, however, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Tsk." She pouted, silently hoping to see him again. When she got her covers off she rushed back to the laundry room.

Ducking down yet again, she rose up and pretended to whistle as though she was just doing normal clothes.

She peeked over behind the basket she had placed the shoes, socks, and gloves behind…

Still intact!

She sighed in relief and hurriedly decided to rush her bedsheets process.

Spending much less time cleaning them, she rushed the washer and threw them into the dryer.

They smelled nice… she would worry about how really clean they were later.

She stuffed Sonic's clothes underneath the bedsheets and started to walk back.

Some friendly recruits tried to ask her if she needed help, but she politely declined them.

Making it back to the room, she closed the door with her back and let out a whine.

"I hate going undercover…" she hunched a little, "So exhausting…"

Her eyes blinked then… she looked up.

A pillar of perfection, she could smell a new scent she wasn't really familiar with before and stared as the light of her small, rectangularly wide window shone down upon Sonic's fur.

His silhouette highlighted a sporting lighter blue, but his regular blue still complimented the shine as he folded his arms and turned around, smiling normally to her.

"…I'm back." He stated proudly.

Amy was, admittedly, kinda surprised he made it back on time.

She thought it was funny that he would be punctual only for his clothing, and not for dates with her.

"Hi." She said with another dip of her chin to her collarbone, blushing…

He cocked up another eyebrow, not sure what her game was, but then looked a little sweeter to her.

"…Hi…"

They stared a moment…

"Oh, Sonic~ You're so dreamy~"

"Ah!"

"Just marry me! You smell so good~"

"Ooh! Quit that!"

"Hahaha…"

Sonic mocked what he thought Amy was thinking, and she immediately took some offense to it, but also laughed and threw her bedsheets at him.

"Hey! Come on! It was a joke!" He then turned his head aside, smirking, "Though, by the way you grew upset… I'd say it had more fact than fiction to it."

"Ohhhh, your shoes are dry!" she held his hidden clothes, showing them off as his eyes immediately fixated on the shine of his shoes…

A moment ago, he was staring out the window longingly… looking a little sorrowful too, before turning around and acting like her Sonic again.

She almost wanted to forget about the monster that had seeped into him, overtook his emotions, and left him wanting no emotions at all…

What kind of lure was that? Why would he freely give up emotions for power? It didn't make sense to her.

Emotions… were wonderful.

He tossed her bedsheets to the bed, but they tumbled from not being thrown far enough onto it as he made his way over to her.

"Are those..?"

She suddenly felt a sense of pride in her accomplishment soar through her from her feet to the top of her head.

"Em-hmm." She nodded, excited to see his amazed face. "Do you like it..?" she ducked her head again, blushing harder now as she felt his fingers touch hers a moment, taking his items from her.

"Wow! What a look!" he eagerly admired them, rubbing his elbow on the buckles and making a face in the reflected image he saw. "They really are good as new!"

She held herself with modest serenity, placing her hands on top of the other in front of her dress, and letting them hang down there as she closed her eyes and soaked in the praise. "I shined them. I wanted to surprise you."

"You really did a great job, Amy."

"Oh, Sonic~"

Her head turned and her hands came up to her cheeks, swaying her dress around at his words.

"Okay… maybe I do act like that still… but it's only because you're worth it~" she accepted that his tease was accurate but didn't care. He had complimented her hard work, and that was enough to make her swoon once again over her true, blue hero.

"They look swell!" he slipped on his gloves.

Amy stopped to watch carefully.

He then started to put on his socks, then his shoes…

"Nice a warm too." he seemed pleasantly pleased with her efforts, and she slightly puffed up a side of her cheek, throwing her fists down subtly.

She didn't feel anything… She didn't find it suggestive and didn't feel anything weird watching him put his clothes back on.

Was she even a woman?

Maybe she loved him in a different way… but she was sure she felt something when…

She remembered their first kiss… not really a first, since it was just a peck on the cheek, and covered her muzzle with one hand daintily as she thought about it.

Had he… thought about it too?

He stuck up his toe and admired his shoes, smiling at their new complexions and how neat they shined now.

"I'll be a new, shiny blur now!" he winked to her, and she melted once more with bubbles spiraling up from her stomach to her chest, resting like soda and tickling her just below the throat.

They compiled around her collarbone and she had to gently press on it to release some of the nervous buzz that floated below and underneath her skin…

"Thanks, Amy."

She waited for it.

" _I appreciate it_."

She felt her body push back up against the door.

 _Now… that was feeling._

She giggled like a love-struck goof and held her hands over her face.

"Aw~ It was nothing. After all, nothing's too much for my Sonic~" she doted, reverting right back to her old self again. This left Sonic with another awkward sweat drop, thinking the same thing to himself.

"Oh… But now that you're all better… A-and clean-" Amy still wanted to know why he was in her bed… did he choose to sleep beside her? Was he trying to state something..? Something… wonderful?

Her eyes lit up at the thought, "I… Why were you asleep next to-"

"Amy."

He cut her off again, but his smile never faded.

"I'm awfully hungry still…"

He patted his stomach and looked to the tray.

"That food was really something. I wouldn't mind another bite!"

"Oh!"

Immediately, her body leapt into action, "Of course! I'm sure Tails didn't eat all the bacon. I'll be back before you know it!" she placed a finger up to her mouth, wondering about that, but then waving before Sonic stopped it.

"Wait..!"

She turned to see his hand reaching her, and something inside her wanted to flinch back… to move away… As if some memory of his touch haunted it…

 _What was… that feeling?_

He stopped with a restrained smile, as if trying to hide something and pulled his hand back.

"I… I just wanted to say something real fast."

"Oh… okay."

Amy turned back around.

He stared at her a moment, losing the smile.

She wondered why he looked so deeply into her eyes… so seriously…

"…Thanks."

He smiled again, walking a little more up to her and closing his eyes, placing a finger under his nose as he turned his face slightly.

"For everything. I really needed ya back there."

She felt her heart skip a beat again and immediately lunged forward.

"Always!"

She cried out, wrapping her arms around his neck as he angled his face away from her.

This was normal. The normal routine~

But then she smelled something nice, and her nose crinkled a minute.

"…Is that cologne?"

She could feel him flinch underneath.

"Emm~"

She laid her head on his shoulder, causing him to slightly look back to see what she was doing.

She slid her head up behind his face, smiling.

"…Now that's a smell better than anything in the whole wide universe."

She suddenly felt something, a thump inside and lowered her ear down slightly.

His heart was beating unusually fast for his resting state… her medical mind started wondering if he was overexerting himself. Was he just pretending to look alright?

What she couldn't see… was that Sonic's muzzle was a shade pinker than before… and his eyes looked filled with manly pride and accomplishment.

'Yes!' he mentally praised himself, seeming to have wanted her to come closer to notice in the first place.

When she didn't go to fetch the tray, he panicked she wouldn't ever get to notice, and so he quickly made up a small plan…

He just delighted in the fact that he swayed her to him and won some noticeable attraction and interest from her in the end.

It was a little odd that she didn't get riled up from him in her bed before… so this was just to set the status quo back to normal…

At least… that's what he told himself it was all about.

"W-what? Cologne? Please."

He fanned his hand and moved her off of him, still acting like a hot-shot and talking cockily.

"What need of I for that? All it does is drawn in women. I have enough trouble with just one, as is."

She pouted and glared up at him, but her expression softened and she nodded, "Yeah… best to not attract unwanted attention." She winked, "I like the limited competition."

His smile became wonky and showed his obvious nerves at that comment.

She then moved back to the door, looking away a moment before straight up back at him. "I'll only be gone a moment… You'll wait and stay here… right?" her hand reached for his own.

He was taken off guard when she held his hand… staring at it.

His shock turned to sorrow again,… but she didn't know why.

"Hmm?" she tilted her head again, cutely innocent of what was going on in his mind.

He breathed lightly and then closed his eyes again, open them only slightly to smile back down at their hands.

"Sure thing… Amy."

Her eyes sparkled with renewed love and hope, and she raced out the door.

"You won't wait too long! Promise!"

He felt he moment her hand's touch left his own… and could feel the substance inside of him start grumbling a rippling effect through his whole body.

…Did it feed off emotions? Or hate them all together…

Perhaps… not these kinds of warm… fleeting feelings Sonic never dwelt too long on before.

It was kinda… scary.

How much he was thinking today.

"Goodbye… Amy."

But the door was already shut tight.

Not a moment later, Amy came darting back in—"Sooonic~ Look what I got for you~ Tails had apparently 'shared' the rest of the food, it had been sitting out there a while… But lucky for you, I'm a fast baker! Look! A muffin!" she held up the delicious baked good before lowering it down to see nothing in the room…

There was her piled up sheets all bundled and draping off the side of the bed…

Her notes… swaying with something new on them…

She looked to the window,… her heart sinking at it being wide open and up, bashing against itself every time the breeze hit against it.

She walked over to the notepad… feeling tears and wondering why he wouldn't just tell her…

She saw her drawing… then flipped to the next page.

Small handwriting was scribbled there…

 _Sorry, Amy._

(Hey! So someone told me short chapters are better if that means I get them out faster. In that case-! You get this chapter XD Enjoy!)


	4. Chapter 4

_**Dark**_ Sonic Forces

Ch. 4

By: Cutegirlmayra (Guess who finished Finals? :D this gal! Lol, so yeah. Here. Have something to eat.)

As though snow had dumped itself off the side of a cliff, Amy slumped forward with a sorrowful frown upon her face that day.

Her back formed like a question mark, mirroring the thousands of questions that were left unanswered by Sonic's disappearance once again.

'He's not letting himself rest… Does he still think he needs to prove himself to everyone?' She sighed, reclining her already bent body further down with the released air.

Girls in the resistance started giggling in a filled storage unit left mostly to dust over until the time for it was needed.

Amy's body slowly rose as her eyes turned to the laughter, her ear perking up at their voices…

Stealthily, as though breaking the law, Amy looked around and slid silently up against the wall, scooting towards the open door to listen in on what they were talking about.

"I don't know… the heat of the battlefield, the thousands of wispons shooting all around you… who wouldn't get turned on?"

"Melissa, you're so bad!"

"I've made out with a recruit who broke his leg once. Is that just as bad? I mean, he was already downed. I felt bad for him. Confined to his little gurney. He was so cute! But so lonely there, so I… gave him a pick-me-up…"

"So, basically you're saying… he already had you in his bed?"

"Gurney!"

"Sounds a bit too easy, Monica."

The girls laughed hysterically as Amy suddenly felt her hair stick up on end. Her quills rose in sudden realization about what the girls were talking about, and she felt like immediately leaving.

Her foot stepped out to do so but the next comment left her stuck in place.

"I can't remember the first time I wanted to kiss a boy… I just remember never knowing what it was really like. The realness of it all. _The sensualness of touch_."

The girls giggled again and Amy suddenly found herself wondering…

She slowly withdrew her foot back to her side.

"I was afraid to be honest."

"What!? You!?"

"Don't look at me like that! Haha! It takes a lot of 'umph' for a girl to kiss a dude she likes! I'll never forget my first love… terrible kisser. But once you take off the glasses—well, there's a man under there! A real beast!"

"Hoho! Sounds like someone's still in love!"

"I dig a man in glasses, I'll admit it."

"Yeah, now that I look back, I'm glad for the times I was innocent~"

"Gurl, I can't imagine you innocent."

"Beonca!"

"Let's talk about my first _bite_ ~"

"OHHHHHHHHH~"

Amy grew flustered, she wasn't sure why, but her hands immediately raced to the sides of her embarrassed cheeks.

She hurried down the corridor and closed her eyes, upset for some odd reason…

'I've never… felt that need… to be anything but innocent.' She kept hurrying until she opened her eyes and realized she was in the big pavilion. The room was a light brown, almost gold color with a creamy white secondary color around it. It was full of trash and cardboard boxes like the ones in storage unit now. No one keeping up with the place. She looked at the stage, remembering when they used to host concerts and speeches there to rile up the resistance into staying strong, and also… announcing Sonic's supposed death.

Her thoughts suddenly shifted to Sonic sleeping, then his gloveless, shoeless, and sockless body in the light of her window, turning around to her. The next moment her thoughts raced to his body moving up and down on her lap, the warm and moist breath on her leg and how uncomfortable that had been, but she ignored it.

She wanted so desperately to help him…

Amy shook her head. Looking greatly disturbed at her new realization. 'Even Sonic thought I was weird… when I didn't react to him before…' She thought of how wonderful it was for him to compliment her. Talking with him and being around him had always been enough for her. And when Sonic mentioned he thought she would be the first to think that way…

'…Why don't I feel that way..?' she placed a hand to her chest…

She wasn't afraid of kissing or… or whatever else would come.

She gripped her dress's ends, looking down. '…I'd always thought Sonic looked attractive… I just never… I mean, I wanted to kiss but…'

She stepped back, feeling small in a room so large and spacious. No one was really around these places at this time. They were either doing chores or preparing for another battle. Some would be finishing up breakfast about now too.

She was having a moment and no one was there to notice, which was sort of convenient in a usually crowded headquarters.

'Is there… something wrong… with me?' she wondered if she really had matured… looking over her body and then wondering about what it would be like…

She tilted her head, having blocked daydreaming for so long since Sonic's disappearance. But now that she knew he was alive…

Growing closer to Sonic… the dream was still alive. She cutely squinted her eyes and lifted her hands up daintily to hold by her sides, tilting her body to really put all her imaginative brainpower into it. "Hmm…"

 _She attempted to picture Sonic coming closer to her, placing his hand on her back and pulling her deeper against his chest and lowering his face to be inches from her own._

But his hands still had gloves on…

She pouted.

But when she tried to think harder on it…

 _Sonic moving his other hand around her waist, pinching the end of one of the glove's fingers to pull it off, the sliding paused momentarily and-_

She suddenly popped that bubble and blushed, smacking her hands over her face and shaking her body wildly. Little pieces of falling dust spiraled away from her in the action, "No, no, no! Eeee! I can't!" she squee'd, giggling to herself before stopping abruptly.

She lowered her hands.

Could she… really not get passed that?

Did she admire him more on his personality than…

She held a finger up to her mouth before her quills stood on end again, her eyes shrinking.

Thinking of him…

Sexually?

"GAHHH!" she squealed in yet another embarrassed and flustered yelp. Covering her face, she violently shook back and forth again, "I can't! I can't! I can't! It's too embarrassing!" She was just so used to being comfortable with him after all these years. And although he was handsome… very handsome… she honestly couldn't think of a moment where she wanted to- "Ahhh! Hahaaaa!" she shook herself even fiercer now, unable to take even the thought of it. Though her mind tried to play out him sleeping on her nicely washed bed sheets, opening his eyes to smile up at her, the image just didn't feel 'right' or 'Sonic-like' to her. The heat of her cheeks was likely to knock her out in a fainting spell at this point, before…

"…What's embarrassing, Amy?"

She froze as a humorous ice sculpture at being snapped out of her inner-thinkings, suddenly recognizing the familiar voice.

Silver stood behind her, holding some papers that looked like filers and tilting his head in the air.

He landed and the glowing green around his body faded, "You looked like you saw a mouse." He admitted.

She lowly cranked her head back to him in the motions of a robot, weakly smiling with little flicks here and there of a twitch on the corner of her mouth. "I was just…" she gestured her hands to the room. "Admiring… the old pavilion." She fibbed… a little… she was getting more accustomed to that too…

She pouted when he looked around, stating, "There's nothing really left to admire…" and then happily walked up to her. He seemed completely oblivious; it was too easy at this point to fool him. Then again, it was really sweet at the same time how believing he was of his friends, how much he trusted them. "No one's seen Sonic in a while. If you're looking for him, I'd check the communications room. Besides, Knuckles and Tails are still pretty upset about the last stunt you pulled. You really ought to take better care of yourself. You could have gotten hurt." He shook the flier a bit at her, attempting to scold but Amy just held a deadpan expression.

"What's the flier for?" she avoided his attempt to reprimand her which made him flinch a little in surprise.

He lowered his head, dropping the act and realizing she wasn't going to see any authority in him whatsoever. She may respect him, but she wouldn't follow his instructions like she did with Knuckles or Tails.

And even then, her sheer will-power trumps them all…

"It's for a concert we were thinking of hoisting here again. Celebrating Sonic's return, but…" Silver looked over the flier, a bit of worried sweat sliding down the side of his face. "I fear… with everything that's been going on with Sonic lately…"

Amy also felt a twinge of sorrow tickle at her heart. Seeing Sliver's disappointed expression suddenly take hold of his face as he looked to the flier…

She wouldn't allow it!

"Sonic will come back!"

She said this with so much moxie and fire that Silver's head shot up in amazement. He was thoroughly convinced she knew it, without a shred of doubt in her mind, that it was true.

"R-really?" he asked, dumbfounded.

Amy took his hand that was holding out the flier with both her own, nodding and jumping up and down excitedly. "Absolutely! Hehe! There's _no way_ Sonic would let his friends or his fans down!" she beamed with a hope she was famous for, and Silver smiled as the uneasiness faded away for a moment.

"Thank you, Amy." He stated with a nod of his head. "You always do know how to cheer anyone up."

Amy took that compliment with pride, removing her reassuring hands from around his own and sticking one down to her hip, the other pounding rhythmically against her heart. "Em-hmm! Leave it to me! I'll find Sonic and bring him straight home to recuperate! You just make sure there's a place for him." Amy passionately rushed off with a new found goal whirling around in her mind. She didn't need to think about anything else… just Sonic! And not failing to inspire hope in anybody else!

Silver smiled before he saw her fully turn the corner down the splintering hallways and frowned when he couldn't sense her anymore.

He looked back at the paper, "But with this new energy encompassing Sonic…" he felt his hope slipping, his faith in Sonic dwindling again.

He leaned his head back and sighed.

….

Amy takes off to the communication room, hearing a ruckus as many people are crowding the entrance.

"What's going on..?" Amy's eyebrows bent back in speculation. She tried to lean her head up and push herself onto her toes to see better, but all she could manage to see were more heads…

"Ohhh-oh-oohh…" with her infamous whine, she slouched down and shook her fists. "That's it! Outta my way!" Amy stomped through the crowd, using her authority as a popular figure in the resistance to have people just naturally move aside for her to come through.

She strode through the crowd, confidently swinging her arms in a bent march and sticking her head up, before crying out when she saw the screen.

"Sonic!"

"And he's not doing too good either!"

Tails immediately turned back to her, his headset on one ear and his hand typing onto the keyboard.

"I've been trying to convince him to back down and come home, but he just won't listen to me! I've sent the new recruit out to bring him back, but Sonic's… he's changed again!" Tails slammed his hand down on the keyboard, squinting his eyes shut again as they shook with trauma. "…What if he… he… He knows how we all feel right now. Why is he doing this? We all look to him to guide us… but he's not! He's just recklessly throwing himself into battle and losing all our trust!" Tails balled his hand into a fist, tears starting to poke through his once struggling to be strong demeanor.

"I almost lost it last time… I thought it was all my fault… that I was incompetent… I don't want him to lose face in front of everyone… I just want him to be here and…"

Amy couldn't take her eyes off the monitor, seeing the dark spiraling vortex before it shot out a pulse that knocked the illusions back, having them disappear with red cubes replacing them for a moment, and then flickering out of sight.

She slowly made her way to Tails, grabbing his head and ducking it into her shoulder.

She also… didn't want Tails to lose face in front of everyone either…

He sniffled and held it together, his other hand gripping the headset as cries and good people were being tossed left and right by Sonic's reckless actions.

The dark figure suddenly panted and fell to a knee, his head completely down with one eye closed. The white sockets disappeared to reveal deep blue eyes, shaking as a figure spun into him and knocked him down. His darkened fur suddenly flickered and he sprang up with the white sockets again, the misty vines forming the monster over his being again that snapped at the blue ball of light that kept flying around him.

"What's that?" Amy wondered out loud, as everyone in the room leaned their head towards the screen.

The recruit's live footage from his glasses showed him shoot out a grappling hook that tied Sonic down, swinging around as the blue ball unspun after knocking Dark Sonic down.

"That looks like…" Amy's eyes widened.

"The other Sonic." Tails smiled, "I found him just before Sonic returned. I think he was sent here by the universe. Even when Sonic can't-… Well, the universe still needs a Sonic." He shook his head, not allowing himself to finish his thought as he started typing things in again.

"Good work securing him recruit. You and the other Sonic report back to HQ immediately! We'll detain him and find out what's going on."

Amy let go of Tails, her hand flinching back at hearing all this.

"Sonic… detained?" She looked up at his unconscious body, the vines still whipping around him as the recruit and Classic Sonic stepped back… But they died down and fell back into Sonic's core… his fur turned back to its iconic blue color.

…..

It took no time at all to get back. Classic Sonic was awarded with the recruit an array of medals, which he seemed to pin onto himself in various locations around his body. It was sort of humorous, watching him finally move the medals enough to create space and smile before being handed another one and seeing his little brain turn on where, on his pudgy belly, to place the new one next.

While he scratched his head on the last one, deciding with a bounce to place it on the top of his head, he noticed people getting rushed out of Modern Sonic's recovery room. " **Get out!"** The voice boomed, as the crowd's cheering hushed a little and turned to the nurses and doctors fleeing from the room with papers flying out everywhere.

Amy was up on the stage, looking heartbroken and worried.

He usually wasn't this rude or mean to everyone… but she knew he must be upset with being confined to his gurney.

She looked desperately to Tails, who also seemed to have the same broken-hearted expression as her.

He saw her looking to him for permission, making sweet hedgehog eyes at him and sticking out her upper lip, her eyes glossing over. "Oh no! He needs isolation!" Tails defended, waving his arms out as the crowd dispersed and Classic Sonic got the recruit's attention, pointing to his badges happily and then bouncing his eyebrows up and down in a sly and cocky fashion at showing them off. The recruit just kindly placed his hand behind his head and scratched it, trying to be polite and tolerate the silly behavior. He had the same medals too…

"He needs me." Amy tilted her head, her ears dropping down to increase her cuteness factor.

As though working, Tails crunched his shoulders up and frowned, turning his head away but not looking away from her. "I said no…" he tried again, hoping to assert some authority, but knowing from previous experiences that there was no way Amy would take no for an answer.

"Fine." She sighed.

"Wait, really?" Tails straightened up, looking happy he might have won for once, but then Amy smiled back a confident grin.

"I'll just go in anyway~"

"Oh, Amy…" He flopped forward, defeated. "I already have to work on building a new X-Tornado! Can't you just help me with that instead of making Sonic even madder?" He lifted his head back, returning to his previous state of misery over his beloved plane.

"You know I'm super sorry about that!" She smacked her hands against the other to apologize, raising them up to him with a bit of awkwardness, "But I just know Sonic needs me! Even if he doesn't know it yet!"

Classic Sonic overheard the conversation and pointed his thumb back to Amy. He mimicked her hedgehog eyes and gestures, acting like a lovesick girl and pretending to be her, making fun of her. The recruit again just nodded awkwardly and smiled, not wanting to side with anyone on the matter of Amy's extremity…

"Besides, who's going to do Sonic's duties while he's out of commission?" Amy was hoping Tails would say himself, but instead, Tails just nodded enthusiastically.

"Got it covered! Little Sonic from another dimension has agreed to take over until Sonic's energy crisis is all figured out!" He gestured back to him as Classic Sonic immediately spun out of his mocking impersonation of Amy and looked politely up at the two. He nodded and jumped, doing a spin and then landing on one foot, holding two thumbs up.

"Hehe, well… you do sport his signature smile." She giggled, fond of his charms as she bent down and grinned to him. "Hey… Promise me you'll be alright, okay?" she tilted her head sweetly and cutely to him.

A sudden shiver broke Classic Sonic of his cool stance. He backed away a moment, before rapidly moving forward and looking at her face.

He seemed to regret making fun of her, seeing how sincere she was towards him.

He sighed and shrugged, deciding not to mock her again and winking to her encouragingly.

He hopped down and gave a thumbs up to the recruit, who returned the gesture as the two fist-pumped and ran off the pavilion's stage.

Tails watched them leave before sighing and losing his smile somewhat. "If I let you go in there… Can you just talk to him… nothing more?" he seemed to genuinely turn to her, asking a favor. "I really don't want him saying anything mean to anyone else… but he's really not acting himself. He could really hurt you deep, Amy…"

That's when Amy realized. The face that Tails was making… it wasn't just his heart that was shattered by Sonic's reckless actions.

Sonic must have told off Tails while he was trying to convince him to come back.

The shock of that made Amy feel like a thunderclap had struck behind her, sounding out over the loud room with an echoed return of pain.

"Tails…" Amy reached out, lovingly to comfort him, but he just shook his head calmly and smiled.

He took her outstretched hand in both of his, stepping forward and keeping his head down. "He's really not himself, Amy… I don't think I can help him in what he needs right now… I'll fix the plane… you fix his heart." He patted her hand, "I normally wouldn't do this but… you really do have a way with people. You know how to show someone their wrong and can do better. Shadow, while delivering the news that Sonic had to hang back while he sorts out his dark energy problem, also mentioned that Infinite's greatest illusion was convincing Sonic he's not enough."

Amy held her breath.

"Sonic didn't like hearing that. He said some things… things I know he wouldn't normally say… but Shadow retorted something about you that I couldn't stop thinking about… Sonic actually quieted down and seemed to distance himself from the topic. I was so amazed he didn't say a quip back or lash out with dark energy like before… but the second Shadow mentioned you, he completely shut down and turned away from everyone." Tails looked up into Amy's eyes. "I don't know what happened to Sonic on the moon. He won't talk about it. He won't tell us what the dark energy is, only that he won't let us look into it. It's up to you now, Amy. We've all tried everything. I just… I know he has the power to say something that could really hurt you and-" as his eyes drifted, Amy turned her hand and clenched his own, placing her other one of his hands as well.

She stepped up, "I still believe, Tails." She smiled warmly. "I won't let anyone down. I told Silver I would bring Sonic back. What I meant was the _real_ Sonic. And I won't leave that room until I find him."

Tails beamed back up at her, blushing even slightly as he stated, "You always do have a way of finding him, Amy."

Their hands slowly parted, sliding off the other in a mutual trust, as Amy parted ways with him and headed for the disaster room.

It was in shambles. She creaked open the door and simply looked around, peeking at the loose wires, crushed trashcan, and tins before seeing Sonic turn his head from facing the opposite way from her.

He huffed and turned back away, not even bothering to speak to her.

He was semi-dark it seemed… his dark blue eyes were seen and his fur a dark blue but not as dark as it could get. The whisking dark vines flamed lightly around him, but other than that, he seemed rather tame at the moment. _**Just highly annoyed**_.

Amy's eyes arched back in love, but also in pain at his obvious ignoring her. She looked to a fallen stool and set it up right, then saw some paper on a clipboard and a pen and quickly scrambled for those, but trying to do so quietly. She finally organized herself and looked to the stool, sitting down… and starting to draw.

Again, starting with the silhouette, she began to outline his body…

Next, those pesky quills…

"… **I really just want to be left alone, Amy.** " Sonic grumbled like a whiny teenager, it didn't threaten her and she just paused in her drawing.

After a moment, she looked back at her paper, blinking her eyes to try and hear anything further before returning to her art.

Now the rest of his quills…

She traced a finger over her work, still not finished, but trying to get a feeling out of it.

Nope. Nothing.

She sighed, dipping her head and then placed a hand to her mouth, looking back up at Sonic to see if he heard her.

Even if he did, he didn't respond.

"… **It's not enough**."

Amy's pen froze in her hand again, not daring to make a sound.

"… **The universe even sent my glory days to deal with what I couldn't accomplish. What's up with that?** "

He gestured his hand out, looking fed up with what was happening. " **Pfft… it's like even the universe has given up on me… I'm a new disappointment. A real let down… so much for the triumphant, heroic return!** "

After a moment of him grumbling and shifting about, muttering insults to the universe and the like, Amy went back to sketching.

Now his eyes… His usual green ones. Yes,… Oh! And his cute, little and long hedgehog nose~

Sonic's head turned, exactly what she wanted, and he looked over his shoulder at her again. **"What are you even doing?"** He seemed more fed-up than angry, and she liked seeing he wasn't so mad as everyone thought he was.

Just upset.

This was Sonic showing his bottled-up emotions, they were important; she wanted him to let off some steam.

Dang, even drawing his blue butt doesn't give her any 'sensations'… was she really unable to feel turned on by him? Maybe if she thought hard enough about it… round… blue… nope, nothing.

She wondered if she was going about this all the wrong way, maybe… she was just _too_ mature for that sort of thinking?

But she did admit, his butt seemed well proportionate and nice. He had a polite butt. She respected it.

When she didn't answer, Sonic dipped his head in annoyance.

She snapped out of her thoughts again, feeling a bit silly for doing this in front of him and quickly held the paper over her face, hiding her blush.

"… **You drawing me again?** " he inquired, and she could tell his voice had softened somewhat into curiosity.

She nervously turns the sketch around, still ducking her head in embarrassment. "It's… you, yeah."

" **Huh?** " he noticed the drawing was him sleeping, back on Amy's bed… the same sketch but done slightly differently than before. " **That's not my current position… nor my resting face**." He argued lightly, but she could see his demeanor was shifting.

If she could just distract him from his thoughts… She knew, quite recently, what it was like to have thoughts that something was wrong with you… she didn't want him feeling the same way.

She shyly cleared her throat, but just as easy as it was to be embarrassed, it was also easy for her to gain confidence too. So she lowered the picture back down to her lab and smiled to hide her nerves, "Well… I had to go off of memory." She admitted, and gently, as though rushing water, looked back up at him in a smooth moment while her hair brushed back against her shoulders from her looking down for so long. "This is how I saw you when I first woke up. You were very peaceful… exhausted maybe, sure." She giggled slightly, "But I felt like I had fallen asleep beside a fairytale." She swooned as she leaned her head against her hand. "You may not like me constantly fawning over you, but you are actually a very pretty boy, Sonic. Oh! I mean man!" She covered her face again, 'Dang it, Amy! Maybe that's why you can't see him any differently! He's too boyish! Even as a man!' she lightly hit the top of her head in light scolds before peeking back up at him with a cute smile.

"Because your face and body were turned from me… I had to go off of that memory. It's a nice memory… probably my favorite in this war so far."

She suddenly remembered her question, and felt an emptiness wash over her, filling up into a pressure that gently pushed against her chest and restricted her breathing.

"What…" 'Why am I asking this now!?'

She squinted her eyes, turning her head away. "What were you doing there… that night… when you were in my room…" She worried so heavily that he would get upset and cut her off again as he did before. Worried she would upset him and that it wasn't what he wanted to hear right now. She felt her hands clench up and tuck some of her dress into the fist with the moment, pulling it up slightly to curve her knees. She felt her body tremble in light quakes, anxiety suddenly making her feel unwanted…

But… "Why w-were you there?" Even through her slight fears, she pushed through with absolute courage. She had to know. It was easy to muster courage, just as easy as it was to feel nervous or afraid.

She just had to will it so.

She just had to know.

"… **Come over here.** " After a brief pause, his face rested into a neutral look, his eyelids dropping. She couldn't read him in this state, but then again, she never really could read him perfectly anyway.

He wasn't an open book, after all.

He was a difficult read, but one she took extra dedication too in learning its odd patterns.

She slipped off the stool, slowly at first, gripping the pen and paper tightly as it lightly crumbled a bit under her firm grip.

She walked over to him, seeing his eyes move up as she approached closer and closer… little by little.

" **Lay down**." Now he just looked sad. It was confusing. Didn't she just do what he wanted her too?

She got on the gurney, watching as he moved up and scooted for her to lay beside him.

She felt a strange tingling as she lowered herself beside him, facing up and feeling his arm against her own.

She blushed and wondered what he wanted, would he answer her?

Sonic stared at the ceiling a moment, and she could swear she heard the buzzing of computers, the ticking of a clock somewhere, and all manner of small ambient sounds of the room around them.

He lifted his arm up, moving it behind his head, giving her some more room and seeming to try and adjust himself to relaxing… but the dark energy… it was retreating back into his core.

She squirmed when she saw it try and reach for her, licking the air as it struggled to latch itself to her skin… but slowly… it withdrew only Sonic's dark blue fur and dark blue eyes remained…

She settled back down, was he still upset?

Mildly so, maybe… he must have been finding it hard to break out of his emotions from the darkness again.

Should… should she offer to relax him with a massage again? But that would be awkward on a gurney right..?

She remembered that conversation in the storage unit and felt her quills spiking in flustered nerves again, covering her face. 'Eeeeee, noooo..! Not now!' she scolded herself.

" **I… I was exhausted**." Sonic finally spoke, the darkness flickering softly up in darker shades before reverting back again. " **Sorry to disappoint you too**." He closed his eyes. " **But I was pretty badly beat up by that last fight with Infinite… It wasn't the first time…** " he felt a nervous tension, not wanting to admit this wasn't the first time he had passed out with Amy in her room before…

His eyes rolled up, his mouth moving to the side of his muzzle to avoid her, but she seemed curious now.

She lifted her head up, tilting it slightly to see his expression better. "What wasn't the first time? Fighting Infinite?"

" **Yep**." He blinked his eyes, not wanting to talk about it further. It wasn't exactly a lie…

When she noticed he remained silent, she shifted back to laying down and started to attempt to draw again.

His eyes finally bounced over to her and then away a few times, before finally turning his head to seeing her finishing her drawing.

"I figured it was that." She admitted, but her tone was low and soft. She was a little disappointed, but she didn't expect anything romantic. It just… wasn't him.

It was difficult, drawing at this angle and having the paper be so uncooperative. She hoped she was doing him justice.

…

Sonic looked over to see her half-smile, something he knew she didn't like to do because of the façade-feeling she would get by making it.

He turned his head more, seeing her eyes moving lightly with the pen strokes, doing her best to draw at this angle though it looked hopeless.

'…She really doesn't get it.' He thought, just… actually staring at Amy a moment. '…She wants to believe it was something else… but she refuses to let me know how she wanted it to be.'

He looked to the drawing, seeing his form and image look almost like a resting baby at this point.

Without a second thought, he swiped the paper out of her hand and took the pen before it fell on her face.

"Oh!" she closed her eyes in a light sound of surprise, thinking she was about to get hit before he lifted the clip on the clipboard and turned the paper over to its other side.

'Think Sonic… Don't disappoint her. Just not her today, okay?' He started to draw on his memory of her resting before he had blacked out.

Her resting frame… hair that parted around her shoulders and lightly arched when hitting the soft white of the bed. The way her nose dipped down and her eyelashes lightly brushed the pillow and covers as she breathed in soft, angelic beats.

As the image took form, Sonic made careful strokes to show her three bangs lowered and curved to the right perspective shot he was going for, and then drew a faint bare shoulder peeking from the covers, another few strokes for her headband, ears, the bridge of her eyes. Finally, he drew her hand that overlapped her mouth and hid half her muzzle from his view, remembering the last image he saw after falling in front of her sleeping body he had so carefully tried to bring home. Safe. He had wanted to reach out and check to make sure she was okay… but the darkness seemed to bother her and he had pulled back.

She was…

A drawing.

Amy blushed at the beautiful lines and shapes that formed Sonic's image of her onto the paper. She had never seen herself like this before… more than just soft and peaceful but…

Beautiful.

"You…" she breathed out, having her breath taken away by his speedy drawing and how skillfully he crafted it. "You draw very well." She cleared her throat, looking away.

He smiled a flirty look at her, raising an eyebrow as though he wanted her to admit he drew her well, but he decided not to push it. " **It's one of my many talents**." He gloated, tapping the pen to the paper… as if not wanting to fiddle with the picture any more than he needed too. It was fine the way it was.

He decided to do some shading practice though and watched as Amy's mouth dropped while he made some blush smudges on her cheeks.

He side-glanced her and her face turned fully red, turning away as he smiled, feeling the darkness begin to slowly release from him.

"It… looks better than I ever could." She turned her head away, just trying to make a joke it seemed, but this comment bothered Sonic.

" **No…** " He glared, but he didn't mean for it to be so harsh. It was meant to be light… he couldn't control how he was coming across though as the darkness enticed him to being more anger again, go numb, but he ignored it and continued, " **It doesn't**."

She continued to look away, but he could see her head shift down at his words.

"…It would be nice… if you could see me that way…"

Suddenly a fire rose in him, something he knew meant fury.

He took a deep breath, trying to soften the look of his widening and enraged eyes.

He squinted them shut, not daring to speak while he was upset.

He just couldn't believe she was fighting him on this one. After drawing her like this… she suddenly has an image complex!?

He wished, in that moment, to not desire to be numb.

Then a feeling came.

It spooked him a moment but he felt the darkness shrieking inside him at him.

It was so warm… it wasn't harsh like the fire had been.

It was shimmering with light that brought his spirits back, as he slowly leaned up in surprise.

It was Amy.

This feeling… he didn't know what to call it other than—Amy.

He slowly leaned over her, his arm moving over her head to trap any movement she may make to get away.

She turned her head instantly, her eyes showing the same surprised light that he was feeling.

He was drawn to it…

The light in her soul… the light she emitted every day of her life.

He wanted so desperately to be closer to that light… for that light to push down the darkness that lured him into nothingness… he wanted this feeling. Whatever he was feeling.

He wanted _Amy._

He stared at her, feeling the dark energy try and pull him away, bark almost at her and what this strange, but exciting new feeling was telling him to do.

He felt the gurney underneath him creak as he lifted himself just enough to be inches away from her, their noses overlapping just slightly as she froze with strained breaths, not sure what he was doing.

Dark green, emerald eyes that shined like an oasis he longed to escape too. Somewhere where he couldn't disappoint anyone. Somewhere where he was always admired and appreciated.

Something triggered in Sonic, something strong that was frightening the dark essence inside of him.

He dipped his head.

Amy's eyes flickered, and that was enough for him to know she wanted the message he was willing to give to her.

He remembered the forest… her lap… her…

He leaned down and lightly placed his lips against her cheek, closing his eyes in a beat before letting himself linger a little longer.

The dark blue fades from his fur and quills, his spines return to their natural blue and when he opens his eyes, the mist parts and their green again.

…

"…What… was that..?" She accidentally spoke out loud. Her whole being felt like it was being weighed down by the medicine again, but this time, it felt incredibly exciting.

Her mouth closed and she felt her breath grow uneven, seeing him staring down at her with a suddenly goofy grin.

She was in total shock, unable to move as he lifted his arm and waved the drawing around above her head. "Don't insult me." His charming eyelids slid down to finish the blow. "Or my opinions."

She was absolutely awestruck.

"What just happened?" she breathed out, looking around as though it wasn't real. "Is this… a dream? Did I pass out?"

He snickered and rolled his eyes, leaning his head into it. "You know, Amy… If you can't tell the difference, it means you spend too long in one over the other." He nodded his head humorously in a light scold, before smirking at her cute, deer in the headlights expression.

"You're…" Amy looked down at his fur, seeing the dark form had fully gone away now.

Sonic raised an eyebrow and looked down, accusing her of checking him out as he looked back up at her eyes.

She flung her head back to his eyes and dipped her head more into the pillow as he chuckled. "Well,… can't stay mad at a kiss, right?" he placed the drawing on her chest and rolled over.

'He… he's paraphrasing me.' Amy gawked, unable to close her mouth from everything that her body just felt and everything that she just heard and witnessed.

Oh the feeling… can we just relive that feeling for a second?

Sensual… was that even the right word?

It was like his stare alone struck every heartbeat with more intensity than the last. The longer he stared, the more she felt like she was transcending to another plane of existence. When he leaned down, the tip of his nose lightly skimmed her cheek, as if a finger deciding where to place its mark.

Then…

That light and gentle hold he had her in, his arm above her and his lips pressed against her cheek was like being enwrapped and completely surrounded by him, shielding her from whatever comment he deemed unnecessary and wrong.

Well, he proved her wrong and she was wrong and she felt his correction with every bone in her body.

Every muscle relaxed from the high tension and her body's heat seemed to slowly fade into room temperature.

She hadn't realized her hands… gripping and unable to loosen up.

But then she turned to see him relaxing again, and that would not do.

He yawned.

Now that the darkness was gone, he felt more like himself and reached up to itch his nose.

As though it never happened.

Or worse.

It happened but it was the most casual thing in the world.

Nothing special.

Not like he just shot a billion cupid arrows into her body that slowly compiled and was ready for anything!

She was gusty now, flinging herself to the side and leaning over him, heart racing with a desire and sensation she had only dreamed was possible.

There was nothing wrong with her.

He just never presented the opportunity.

"I felt something." She spoke quickly, still breathing a little irregular.

He looked up at her and then turned his back to her.

Her heart felt like the last bullseye had struck and there was no way she was letting him slip out of this one.

She touched his back, wanting to return to that closeness again. "Turn around…" she whined, cutely demanding but showing her want for his immediate attention again.

Why was he turning away all of a sudden!?

He twitched under her touch.

Was he really that shy..? After that last stunt he just pulled? Oh no. She wasn't taking that crap anymore.

Suddenly, as she went in with a new enthusiasm for life, her smile faded and she noticed him digging his head into the side of the pillow…

Oh…

She pulled back, "Sorry." It wasn't shyness…

"I'll…" It broke her heart to say it, "I'll leave you alone now."

He just didn't want to be angry.

He just wanted a way out.

And so he created a good scenario for her. To not disappoint her. Because he knew at least one way to break the emotional hold the dark energy had on him. Whatever it was… she now truly hated it.

She began to move up, leaning to be upright as she turned her body. She waited a moment and then hopped down.

'Whelp! At least I helped him…' she held back her tears, not daring to face him again. 'At least I know… what it means… to be close to him now… I guess.'

Suddenly, he abruptly turned around, reaching out for her as his body flickered from a dark shade to blue again. "Wait!" the darkness spiraled into a full on Dark form…

Amy jumped back, flinching as she saw it.

He lowered his hand, looking down as the white sockets seemed to register what had just happened to him.

"… **You haven't fully taken it away yet."**

"H…Huh?" She thought he did that on his own…

" **My… anger…** "

He shifted, " **It didn't work**." He moved up on the bed. " **It was fleeting… I felt something… It made me… free. You can't leave. It'll come back. I need it. Whatever that does… it … helps.** "

She realized he was talking about kissing, and covered her mouth at the strange but amazing situation she was now placed in.

At her silent reaction, his fur died down to a dark shade and his deep blue eyes returned, as he darted them around, nervously.

His hand… slowly came back to his side in a fist. He was on his knees, feeling his body get sucked back into the darkness was making him exhausted but…

He did not want her to leave.

" **It's the only thing that's snapped me out of it… so far**." Again, he nervously turned away.

At this point, Amy's heart was about to explode. She was about to launch herself back onto that gurney, about to give the man with a broken leg a pick-me-up, but held every ounce of it back to let him speak.

It was literally enthralling, and she did everything in her power to keep herself put.

Instead, she took a deep breath, seeing him look back to her.

"… **Please**." He hissed it out as if it was difficult for him to ask. " **Stay**."

She felt like just saying, 'I'm yours!' but kept it back, closing her eyes at the thought of finally being close to him… but was it real? Was it just to get rid of emotions he allowed to be taken away from him?

Now he suddenly wants to feel emotions, but that's to drown out the darkness inside of him. She was still confused on if this was a love confession or a plea for help.

Either/or, she was delighted to be of assistance! But…

Was it love?

Was it really him asking for her and her alone..? Or for the powerful emotions that broke him out from being taken over?

She braced herself, holding back every longing to jump into his arms…

She leaned over,…

And gently kissed his cheek.

But the dark fur only flickered to blue and then returned back again.

She turned to leave, not wanting to face the truth that this wasn't love, but a temporary cure to Sonic.

" **It's not enough..! Yet…** " He caught her from moving away, stealing her breath again but this time… she couldn't see his dashing eyes, piercing love arrows into her ever bursting heart.

He looked down, "… **One more**." He seemed focused for some reason as if making a decision in his mind.

He looked back up to her, his eyes narrowing down as his grip on her tightens, but she ignored the slight pain, knowing he probably didn't even notice he was slightly hurting her.

Suddenly, he reverted to what appeared to be a child pouting. " **One more**." He pursed his lips, as a dark shade flickered and remained with his deep blue eyes as the white sockets also faded in light. His lips seemed infuriated by her hesitation and tightened all the more fiercely as he furrowed his brow.

"… **And this time… a real one**."

Amy almost collapsed to the ground.

She gripped the edge of the gurney to keep herself afloat.

W-what did he say..?

" **I can't stay mad… I won't be mad anymore… right?** "

Now the darkness fully encompassed him, she saw the mistrust in his dark blue eyes before he glared and the darkness and anger returned.

Was there also somewhat… fear? That she was misguiding him?

"...Oh Sonic..." she looked within the white sockets, seeing his emotions were all over the place, and he probably didn't even realize it. "I can't tell if this is you or not… I…"

She wanted with everything in her body to take advantage of this rare moment in both their lives, but something felt off about it.

That kiss on the cheek… that felt right.

But this didn't.

Something about this-

" **Amy**."

She hesitated.

" **I don't know what it is… but there's something about this… I'm mad, but I'm not mad at you. I'm upset, but I'm never upset at you. Even after that first time you surprised me… I was afraid you were laughing at me, but I wasn't angry. I only get angry when I'm not feeling enough. But I know you see me as enough… and I'm disappointing you by giving into this power… this… nothingness. It was cologne. It was the massaging… the shine on my shoes… the warmth of your lap…"**

He began to move closer up to her.

" **If this is what brings me out of it… if whatever I feel with you drowns out the dark substance in me… then… it can't be bad."**

Amy sucked in some air.

" **Right?"**

Her lips press lightly against his, as he surrenders into it, but the dark vines whip out and begin to suffocate her.

He pulls her deeper in, feeling her slightly pull away but she falls to the gurney and she lets the more powerful emotion of saving her love overtake the grip of the darkness and the uncomfortable wispy licks of the struggling dark power.

And struggle it did.

Trying to destroy the source of its host's escape.

But the power overwhelms it and soon the darkness is forced to retreat with a shriek that only Sonic can feel.

Dark Sonic fades…

And Sonic caresses the side of Amy's face and gently tugs her ear to turn the rest of her body…

Now the only thing entangling around her…

Was his arms.

(Oh… this isn't the end. This was only **brunch**. We're just passed breakfast,…

 _Remember?_

Someone in the audience: But what about second breakfast?!)


	5. Chapter 5

**Dark** Sonic Forces

Ch. 5

By: Cutegirlmayra. (So my writer friend, JuniorBLD, was telling me that if I want to get out of stress, I needed to write something that wasn't stressful. I've been doing Tumblr prompts and Commissions for a long time now, I haven't been able to work on my own fanfiction… but that's all about to change! Lol Second Breakfast? I'm ready to write _Lunch_!)

 _It was light as air, yet heavy as though a weighted rain cloud._

When he pulled her ear to slightly coax her to lying down by his side, kissing in a sweet lingering taste… it felt like nothing Amy had experienced in any daydream before.

When the first kiss broke, they stalled a moment to stare at one another, as though both unsure of their unsteady breathing… but as the dark fur began to seep back up through Sonic's skin, he gave it a slight, side-glare and took another breath, pulling Amy closer.

Her hands found their way up, cradling the gap between his back quills to allow him to drag her body under him and draw her nearer.

She wasn't sure what to do, or what was really happening within himself. She could only feel the sweetness of the moment grew more and more escalated with stronger, rougher kisses as he pushed into her mouth and seemed to explore more ways to drown out the darkness that still threatened to numb him.

However… was he unaware that no such darkness or impulse to push anything down was in Amy?

There was only love driving her to learn how to show it, but Sonic was in a constant struggle within himself, knowing that Amy somehow gave him the desire to feel more than to be taken over. This meant that Sonic's push to feel something through her was much more intense than Amy was ready for. There wasn't much wooing… and the suddenness of it all left a slight tightness in her chest, though the kissing still gave her bubbles along the sides of her skin that flowed like a rapid, warm waterfall throughout her whole being.

The feeling would drown out her worries at times, but the feelings she gave Sonic literally beat down the dark entity howling and raging against her.

She tilted her head to give herself another breath; unsure why the first kisses were so sweet and shy, and then immediately felt desperate and aggravated—other than she knew he wanted an escape. It hurt her to think that was all this was,… but her thoughts scarcely remained straight.

When he seemed to notice her slight setback, fidgeting under him and seeming to resist his lunges as he attempted to gain more powerful feelings from their kissing, he frowned and turned to where Amy was the one on top, him on the bottom.

The shuffle was smooth as he lowered himself to his back and pulled her up to give her more control of the situation. He seemed to be considering her now, realizing the invading darkness shouldn't overwhelm him into forgetting what he was doing… and that Amy was just as much at risk of getting hurt as he was, too.

He smirked with a flare as though trying to keep the mood light and not catch her on to the painful struggle inside himself. " **Easier?** " It was like he was giving her the reigns all of a sudden.

His consideration made Amy pause to stare at him in absolute love. "Falling in love with you was never easy," she admitted, lowering back to his face, feeling the shaking of his body and wondering just how physically and emotionally exhausting it was to fight against this dark power within him. It was able to take his emotions, turn him numb to everything except power, and fueled him towards anger and hate. She didn't want to think of that, but it was hard not too. So she played the game right back, pretending to keep the mood by making things just as light as he wanted it all to seem. "You just always made it seem that way…"

He smiled and raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was really thinking herself smooth before kissing again.

The cliché actually worked for Sonic. He found it humorous but sincere, just how he liked it. The turn-on actually stopped the luring darkness from tempting Sonic to be numb again, using his fear of hurting Amy against him. Instead, Sonic filled his body with the light sensations and miniature explosions of joy mostly in his stomach and chest, resisting the darkness thanks to how Amy made him feel. Strong, charming… he felt like he was in his super form, but in a different way.

Amy was conflicted too, but not like Sonic's actual battle. Was this really love? Or was she just a means of release from the darkness? She couldn't tell, but she also didn't fully care. Something in her wanted to save him no matter what it took. For her, sacrifice was apart of love… but to sacrifice her own feelings,… to get this close to Sonic only to realize that it didn't mean he actually-…

She refused the thought. She refused the sorrowful doubt that crept into her mind about Sonic. She immediately gave in to giving him all her heart in this one, exquisite moment of fate.

Giving her the control was the right move on Sonic's part, she controlled how much was happening, and it made him less eager to please her and just focus on the sensations.

The darkness felt like it was truly being _tortured_ inside him. He gave all power to the electric feelings and nothing to its shrieks and howls of protest.

Amy's hands gripped at his quills and sent what felt like a spike of electric current through him. He really did feel loved by her, but it also made him slightly uneasy. He didn't know how to replicate it and worried he wasn't doing enough.

However, it was hard to think of Amy too much, as he did feel a tinge of the vines lash from inside him, clearly trying to reach out from him and attack her.

Before, it had seemed to only want to bind her, but now…

As Sonic drew more strength to resist it through her, it also gained an equal desire to destroy the source that kept it at bay. Trapped. Suffocating.

The lash snapped him forward as he gripped Amy closer and dived deeper into their embrace, a passionate kiss she wasn't fully expecting as he let nature—less thought—

guide his following moves.

This was now a fight or flight, the pain from the darkness was matching the joy of being loved, and Sonic was having difficulty knowing how to fully return that sensation.

Or… was he just too uncertain to fully accept it in his heart?

When they flopped back on the gurney from that moment of Sonic leaning up and squishing them together, Amy had opened her eyes and placed her hands instinctively by his arms. It was a defensive move to push him away if necessary, but the sudden lunge's power subsided and they fell back with gravity as she was once again confused as to what this was.

Amy found herself coming back to reality, realizing now that his fingers were—ever so sneakily—slipping under the edged boundaries of her exposed back and gripping her more tightly in their hold.

It gave her a funny feeling, like fireflies zapping light sparks that felt inviting at his fingertips, lighting up her skin with heat as she hadn't expected the touch before.

Then she wondered… and that wondering made her pull back a moment.

" _W-wait_ …"

What were Sonic's morals?

They had never talked about it…

She had always watched those talk shows' discuss waiting to give everything till he was really in love with you, and proved it with a ring and vow. That was before the war,… when such luxuries were still amusing to her. She had always told herself she would play coy, never really giving anything away. She wanted marriage, and if men were natural-born hunters, then she'd have to give them a game. She would joke about it, but now she wondered… She figured she would pull Sonic into a spiral of desire for her before finally letting him marry her, but that was a long time ago… when she thought about all these things.

She was amazed they haven't come back into her mind until recently…

But now,… she felt her eyes blink as the fear of the unknown crept into her heart.

It wasn't that this moment wasn't everything she had ever wanted, it was just a little sudden, and a little overwhelming now that it was all happening.

And… if she was honest with herself… she wished it would have been in better circumstances. Not like this… Where she was so uncertain about everything except her own feelings for him.

"S…Sonic," Her voice was full of sincere concern, catching Sonic off guard as he pulled away.

…What if he was just as scared? What if this wasn't even him, but the darkness forcing him to suppress it. Was she the only cure? Was that right? Though it filled her with being needed, she feared it wasn't what Sonic wanted.

 _What if… she wasn't what Sonic wanted?_

He was so focused on the darkness inside of him that he hadn't actually been paying attention to anything he was doing.

For the last few seconds, he was just trying to focus on the emotions and not let the darkness take them away from him.

His face spoke volumes when he saw her broken expression. He was just as startled by her hands all shoved into his quills and making his three spikes split out into a million smaller strands, going every which way direction.

They had only been kissing for a short time, but in that moment, they really had quite an experience…

His heart cracked and his soul splintered when he realized he was flickering out her very essence, possibly condemning her to thoughts that weren't his intent.

He could see the uncertainty in her eyes and worried greatly that this was too much.

"…Don't overthink it, Amy." He lifted a hand up to her cheek, trying to console her.

The darkness completely choked once Sonic's eyes returned to their lime-green shine when his care for Amy's feelings took over his own want for freedom from its grasp.

She breathed, trying to catch up with herself. She could feel his chest too, rising and falling as his thoughts must have caught up to the present of what was actually happening as well.

 _Too much. Too fast._

 _Too desperate._

 _It wasn't right._

She nodded then, "O-…Okay." She looked ready to go again but Sonic was already out of the danger zone.

'I can't do this to her,' he thought, pulling away a moment as his true felt started to regain some control over himself. 'Amy doesn't deserve to be freaked out by me. I don't want to use her… I do want to feel this… but I could also hurt her without meaning too. I'm feeling better… but I'm also feeling worst.' He had cradled her heart and then set it back down. Kissed it but then returned it to the shelf. It pained him to think about it that way, but he couldn't entertain the thought of breaking her spirit towards him.

He was her hero. He shouldn't have to convince her to save him like this.

 _It wasn't something his pride would allow him to do._

So when she flung herself at his face, he reverted back to his old, awkward self.

" _Emmph!_ " He was taken aback, ready to call it quits when she speedily tackled back into his face. His eyes scanned the room around them while she pushed into his lips and squished his head back against the bar of the gurney's back.

'Ow..!' he thought to himself, 'Shoot, shoot, shoot!' he squinted his eyes and tried to lean back, thinking he could subtly maneuver himself away from her and slip back, but with her being on top now, it was almost impossible for that to occur.

Plus, the ground was dirty… Amy might get mad if he tried to dodge out of her devoted displays of affection…

And he'd rather be kissing her lips than that hammer!

But then… what on earth was he doing before!?

It was too many thoughts that he didn't want to process right now. Or ever. The feelings before had died down to a simmer, and though Amy's kissing had surprisingly improved in effect over him, he fought to stay out of the passionate sensations. Refusing to yield to both her and the darkness, he began to lose hope of ever escaping the double-edged sword he had cast over himself… quite literally…

His eyes swirled and his face flushed with pink, 'Help!' he mentally cried out, not sure how to get out of this one now…

But she kept right on coming… and suddenly his eyes relaxed. Those lighting bugs… those electric little sparks that twisted around his veins and pulsed his heartbeat into desire again… The feelings took over his thoughts and his body slowly surrendered back to the comforting cushions of the bed below him.

'Let her have this.' He thought to himself, but smiled internally… 'And let me have this… let's just have some fun.' He thought back to what he had previously stated about not overthinking it, 'Just between us two… let's just keep this… _a little longer_.' He figured if it felt this good to be loved by Amy, he might as well sit back and enjoy it.

If she'd ask for an explanation, there was always the door!

He raised his arms from having crawled back away from her, and let them go limp by his sides.

Gently, they found their way to her waist and his head tilted to invite her in.

Now he was trying to disillusion himself. He clearly wanted to kiss her back, rejoin the emotions that once prevailed against his own foolish stubbornness, but kept telling himself it was all for her sake.

He wouldn't admit that he chose the feeling of being with Amy over the alluring numbness of nothing through the darkness. Though he was once kissing her and being angry at the darkness, filled with hate for himself and his circumstances, he was now just kissing her to thank her— _adore_ her. He wouldn't speak these as thoughts or anything like unto it. He just felt it, but he would deny it the second someone may have tried to see or sense it.

His eyelids rolled to a lulling close and his lips tenderly sought her back, playing off his resistance as a tease to keep her coming back with more.

The kissing now wasn't as desperate as when he felt the lashing whips of the darkness trying to destroy the remaining will he had regained through Amy's help. It felt like it would never yield and keep its nagging hunger to eliminate the threat of light Amy sent soaring through his being.

It was a growing light now… not as powerful as before simply because Sonic wasn't encouraging it to be anything like that. Now… it was a gentle pull to be more. It was a light turn of his head to scale her face and cheek, feel the soft, individual quills grace by like heavenly silk against him. Limp, but present. Light, but meaningful. The entire atmosphere had changed from panicked survival through her kisses, to now embracing them as more than that. The pleasure of being more acquainted with this intimacy they both were experiencing for the first time. It was less threatening but peaceful. It was soft and invited more exploring and play, brought out a softer side to this exchange that Amy had deeply wanted, but was worried it wouldn't happen. Sonic seemed to take his time soaking in the emotions still stirring from his heart… Less force, more learning… Less urgency, more time…

Before, it was like a cry for help to save him. Now, it was a call to overlap these electrical currents, merge the lighting bugs, and slowly let a whole new world be forged between them.

Holding her lightly, he skimmed his hands up to her quills and drifted them towards him. He liked the touch, the prickled tips and slender strands sliding off him. He treated her now as though she was delicate, kissing her as if she would fade if he wasn't too careful.

It was honestly more than she could stand, trying to mimic him before he coaxed her to relax and enjoy it too. She was too anxious, still fueled with the energy of saving him, he tried to introduce her to a new fuel… _each other_.

He continued to softly stroke her quills towards him so her face wouldn't move so far back as their lips would part and touch again. Over and over… constantly seeking a balance of air and delight.

But then… as Sonic had just begun to find a spark of courage to continue this… newfound development… and keep this flow of naturalness and liking increasing into a rhythm between them that they could both enjoy together… a creak came from the door.

The coziness that had started settling in all but fled as Sonic's eyes flung open. It was like a thousand air horns were vibrating their sounds in his head and he acted almost out of instinct.

Amy, without any warning or forethought from Sonic at all… was flung into the air and flopped off of him, falling like dead weight onto the left side of the gurney—out of sight with a slight, "Woo-op!" and _Thud_!

Sonic had resumed a positively 'faking that I'm chill' position with his body turned towards the opening door, his super-fast reflexes taking his two—once limp arms—to holding up his head and the other arched up and gripping his side. _Classic_. One leg lifted up and the other rested down, a true—'I wasn't doing anything, you?'.

Amy lay on the cold, hospital-like floor with dust spraying out from her immediate tumble. '…What just happened?' she thought.

Her eyes shrunk as she looked around, wondering how a moment ago she was kissing the love of her life and the next? Ground. Dusty… hard… _ew_.

Her anger now spiked, but it was quickly defused by her confusion when hearing footsteps walk in and Sonic's nervous laughter above her.

"Haha, Shadow! Good to see ya!" His voice sounded as though a child caught in the act of reaching for a cookie but swiping his hand out and getting the lid back on, scooting the stool he used to get up to the jar out of his way, and placing his hands behind his back while looking to his parents as though playing it off like he didn't know what they were staring at.

Shadow studied the room… something in the air didn't quite feel right.

"You're too jolly..." He grumbled, throwing what looked like one of Infinite's deactivated cubes on the counter as though a pair of keys, walking in and folding his arms to Sonic. "Weren't you on a raging _tantrum_ not too long ago?"

The cube startled Sonic. He immediately broke his fake, embarrassed smile and got up, fixated on it. "Why isn't it glowing red?" he asked, confused. "And why aren't you just getting straight to the point?" He raised an eyebrow at Shadow, but there was clearly some ulterior motive for his question.

 _Infinite…_ He still had something to settle with him…

Shadow grinned, "I'll admit, I missed your smug little act." He closed his eyes, but there was something offsetting about Shadow in 'missing him' that rubbed Sonic the wrong way.

"But I'm honestly more curious as to how you broke out of your fit so early." Shadow raised his head up, opening his eyes with a haughty look to them. "…Wasn't _Amy_ just in here moments before..?"

Sonic tensed, raising himself up a bit on the gurney and folding his arms and legs Indian-style, looking away with a pout. "Why's the cube not glowing…" he muttered, which only made Shadow shake his head.

"Suppose I was right. You do have a soft spot for the girl." He looked to the cube. "Even Tails couldn't get you to act civilly…"

"What do you want, Shadow?" Sonic threw an annoyed tone out, not wanting to continue on this any longer. He did feel bad, but it was Amy that brought about the will to fight for emotions he had once tossed aside. Tails wouldn't complain… Somewhere in Sonic's heart, he knew the little tike understood his repressed awareness of her charms.

"I want the hero of this world back." He gave Sonic a death glare out of the corner of his eye. "This cube was impersonating Infinite… but I found a way to hack its warping properties and stumbled upon a reality that Infinite creates within himself… Within-"

"The Phantom Ruby." Sonic's eyes continued to stare at the cube, a seriousness settling in.

Amy wondered, holding her hands up by her chest and breathing softly as to not be noticed. 'What is he thinking..? I'm glad he's not being triggered by the mention of Infinite… but doesn't he want to fight Infinite and avenge himself? Ooohhh… he better not do anything recklessly again!' She puffed up the side of her cheek, blushing in her loving worry of him.

"…Yes." Shadow picked up the cube and held it up to Sonic. "…Would you like to truly end this war? Fight in a reality where what's _false_ can _kill_ you..? What's really not there… can throw a punch?"

Sonic looked intrigued, leaning towards the cube as though fascinated by what Shadow was saying.

But Amy could see the tip of his shoe lowering to the floor, and in a panic that he would take the bait and run from the rebellion and his friends again, she summoned her hammer and bonked the bulge under the gurney where his butt must have sat.

"Ah..!" Sonic jumped a little in his seat and quickly glanced behind him with his eyes. 'Shoot… She'll kill me if I just leave now.' He sweatdropped, remembering he had to deal with that first…

"What was that?" Shadow looked around, his eyes skimming the surface of the ground, not sure where the thumping sound of muffled pounding came from…

Sonic nervously chuckled and shrugged, "If you need a hero looking to get square with Infinite, then I'm your hedgehog!" he nervously patted the end of the gurney's side behind him, as though gently trying to tell Amy to calm down below.

Luckily, Amy was well hidden behind the machines that were located directly beside Sonic's gurney, but also not wide, thick, or tall enough to obscure Sonic's launch of Amy's frazzled body over them.

"…Then,… Good." Shadow slowly nodded his head, still wary of the noise and looking around. "I've lured Eggman to a convenient location. Infinite will most likely target you. We can use that to activate our own version of the Phantom realm. We'll distort his own reality and make him a mortal mammal again." Shadow withdrew the cube back into his custody and headed out the door.

"Meet me near the exposed grounds near where Angel Island once stood above the waters… they're just sand heaps now, but Eggman's been building over them. _**Don't be late.**_ " With that, Shadow was gone…

Sonic withdrew a bit of his body down and away from Shadow's harsh, condensing glare as the door finally closed and he flipped around to peer down at Amy.

 _She was ticked_.

But in a cute way.

Sonic let a bead of sweat streak down from the side of his head again, trying to muster a smile for her. "Ehh… Whoops?"

Though her blushing, angry pout was rather adorable, irresistible to Sonic even if she decided to maybe kiss him again… she covered her face and couldn't help but curl a little up in glee.

"Uhh… Thanks for keeping the darkness completely at bay, Amy!" He gave her a shaky thumbs-up before ducking to peek over the side of the gurney with only half his face showing.

She burst with a loud cry, "You're leaving! Again!" she kicked her legs out, fighting the impulse to strangle him and whack him upside the head. "And worse than that, I feel like I've been thrown off by the wind into the dust!"

His ears bent down, "Yyyeeahhh… S-sorry about that…" he nervously chuckled.

His body suddenly spiked in panic as he immediately jumped off the bed, her hammer slamming into the gurney, denting the once heavenly place... where they shared their first real adventure together...

"Did any of that mean anything to you!?"

"S-sure it did, Amy! I already said it did…"

He gulped.

"B-before… we… um… y-you know…"

"Made out?"

She put her hand to her hip, swishing her head around as if not taking any more of his crap.

Her quills… how alluring now. It was as though her entire figure had been pronounced to his eyes now.

He knew how they felt, the pathways to grip her closer to him, the bend of her arms and curve of her torso…

He stared a minute, she was beautiful in a completely new light.

He couldn't help but smile and lower his eyelids a bit, realizing how much had grown between them in such a short time… a small exchange that would change history.

But a rebel is still a rebel, and he looked back up to her eyes, shining with the idea that her lover couldn't possibly depart without her loyally following beside him into the fray of hardships and strife.

"I'd like to think of it more as…" He rubbed his chin, 'Dang, Amy… I kissed that?' he joked in his head, 'When did you grow up?' before looking towards the door. "Umm…"

"Don't you even think about it," She protested, a foot stomping down in front of her, ready to dash after him, refusing to let him leave.

He grew a bit uncomfortable, giving her a typical look of—Count to three!

"Sonic The Hedge-!" before she could finish her sentence, he had already bowed with his hands pressed firmly together in a pathetic apology—1. Then lifted a leg up—2. And speedily, as though running for his life, raced out the door.

"…Hog." She gripped her heart—3…

Lowering her hammer down as it _poofed_ from existence, she sorrowfully stared at the door as it slowly swung back from the lingering force of his exit.

"…You're going to get yourself hurt… or worse." She closed her mind at the painful memory of hearing Sonic had failed, that he was missing, or _**dead**_ …

That awful memory quaked her whole being, causing her mind to shiver from the loneliness it once had to endure but sung to her heart to soften her anger as she shook her head with tears.

"Don't you dare… Don't you _**dare**_ leave without me again!" She bolted for the door, "Sonic!"

The door was swung open again, a large _whack_ slammed against the wall beside it with its hinges creaking at yet another careless exit.

A small Classic Sonic stopped in his tracks.

He was the first face she saw stepping out. Half her body leaned out the door before she collapsed to her knees, her hands slipping from the side of the door's frame in her descent.

"Why are you so..!? So..!? Difficult!" she hollered, directly in his face as he blinked his eyes, completely unaware of what was happening. "I give you my heart and you just… you should learn to accept your feelings, already!" She jumped over him and took off, a woman on a mission as Classic continued to blink his eyes.

He slowly shifted himself to her fading form, racing through the pavilion towards a corner and sharply turning… Then he opened his mouth and closed it, shook his head as though reminding himself that she was crazy, and continued at his usual blur pace towards his next mission assignment.

The bumps from the ground rocked Amy in her hiding place, holding a miles-electric pad and having headphones in the cramped area to listen in on the communication channels. It wasn't looking good… everyone was suffering a lot, but Classic Sonic and a newly restored Sonic gave faith to the rebellion that all was going to shift. And shift it did.

Sonic had stated he had rested enough, was ready for action, and Amy was glad to hear his voice so full of the confidence she had long missed from before.

Battle after battle, zone after zone, more and more territory was being taken away from Eggman again.

But the thought still persisted… what about Sonic's darkness?

It had been quite a while since Amy snuck into Knuckles's tank division, hoping they were heading to the sand dunes. She was quite over any _surprise_ when Knuckles finally did lift the chest-like box open to see her staring up at him as if saying—"'Bout time." And heard his hollered opinions about why she shouldn't be here.

"You've got to be kidding me!" He lifted her out by the scruff of her dress, dangling her as she instinctively lifted her legs up and pulled in her hands to grip the miles-electric. Again, she didn't look surprised by his actions, just waiting for them to settle down and let him go through the motions of scolding her.

Enraged, he continued, "Not once, Amy, but twice! You've snuck onto the battlefield and dared disobey a direct order!"

She had her eyelids lowered, unamused by his antics, and turned the miles-electric over to reveal she was still doing her job…

"Ah… wha… That's not-… Grr..!" He was left speechless at seeing she was still on-duty, so to speak, but then shook her up a bit as he pulled her face in towards himself. " _You're still not allowed out here!_ "

She stuck her tongue out at him.

He sighed, setting her down gently.

He shook his head and held his face in his mitten-gloved, "If I didn't know any better… I would have said you were nuts. But let's get this straight, Sonic?" He knew whatever this stunt was, it was because she cared deeply for the blue boy.

She smiled with great enthusiasm.

"On the field?" he almost moaned out, gripping the skin on his face and dragging it down with his conflicted sentiment.

She cooed, "So intuitive~"

After seeing her so unabashedly unaffected by his usual thrashing and shouting, Knuckles breathed out the last of his remaining rage, "Gahh… Fine. What do you plan on doing then?" he lifted a hand to grip the side bars above as the tank kept scaling over the rough terrain.

Amy's perfect balance kept her from doing the same, showing off slightly as Knuckles seemed to ignore the fact that she was purposefully not gripping any support. "Where's Sonic? People have stopped talking about him on the communication channels." She took the headphones out and held the miles-electric by her side.

"They're a good few miles from the Infinite Trap. I'm calling it-!" he held out his free hand, excited to mention this, "Brilliant Blast'em and Shoot'em Plan'!"

He rubbed his nose, "Pretty great, huh?"

"Em-hmm." Amy cutely smiled and nodded, though it was clear she didn't share the same fondness for the name. "I think I overheard Shadow saying something about that to Sonic."

Knuckles suddenly shook his head and gave Amy a double-blink stare. "That's impossible." He stated, "Shadow was racing around with Rouge to spy on Eggman. Infinite hasn't been located in quite a few days, so they were finding out if Eggman was doing anything more to _enhance_ Infinite and his chances against Sonic."

Amy's heart failed to keep in beat with the bouncing tank. She heard the engine match the pace of her blood pulsing into a panic, "What about the cube?" she breathed out, barely able to speak. "The warped reality… where what's false is real and what isn't there can punch you?" she paraphrased Shadow's words, but Knuckles just gave her a dumbfounded look again.

"Tails said something about the cubes having another dimension. Sonic's discovered false images thanks to Shadow's intel we received awhile back. To my knowledge, Infinite's cubes, once touched, can send you to that other dimension. But even while not being in that dimension, you can still get pretty beat-up by Infinite's endless clones…"

As his body rocked with the tank's movement, Amy's whole core shook in distress.

Her eyes widened, "Clones..?" as the memory of the previous incident from a few days back ran like a horror film through her mind, she noticed small details about Shadow that didn't seem right. The uneasiness in the air… the strange dialogue…

She suddenly rushed to the soldier at the wheel of the large tank, pushing him out of the way and sitting in his chair, getting down and hitting some switches that moved the Tank at irregularly fast speeds.

It floored over the rocky terrain and headed straight for the sand dunes, bulldozing over any Eggman creation around it and even bumping the side of a loop-de-loop that collapsed slowly behind them in their wake.

"A-A-Amy!" Knuckles spoke with the bumps of the tank, having him and his soldiers bounce to the beat of the fast-moving armored combat vehicle.

"Wh-whe-wher-where are you-ou go-o-oing!?" Knuckles tried to move through the bumps, bouncing in jumbled scrambles as he moved through the tight space to her, reaching for the wheel. "Th-at-at's the wr-o-on-ong way!"

However, Amy saw his hand and glared at it, looking out to see through the projected screen that there was a significantly large mound of dirt and sand up ahead.

Skidding the rolling steel expertly across the sand, taking logic and physics into consideration, she hauled the tank over the mound to throw Knuckles back by the force. When the tank clattered and bounced back into a stable, straightened path, Amy gave it a newfound speed boost by kicking the tank into overdrive.

As the engine flared with fire, spooking the soldiers, Knuckles threw an arm up to block the heated light from his eyes and face, turning to Amy again with a warning. Now, under a much more rhythmic spacing of sandy hills, Knuckles could get a cohesive line out to her, "We!" He said over the first elongated jump, "Could!" the second, "Self!" the third, all the while Amy's eyes fixated in a deep concentration of anger towards the fallen Angel Island ruins. "De-!" She saw something hovering in the distance… an egg-like form…

Her eyes widened as her mind filled in the blank of what that shape meant, looking at it as her mouth opened a little into a small 'o' shape.

"Struct!"

She grinned an evil stare as a long stretch of land was between her and a conveniently placed strip of sand that extended upwards toward an angled, steep cut-off… perfect for trajectory launches…

The bumpy ride was over.

As Eggman's forces came upon Sonic, he stood confidently without struggle, racing around and circling with a spinning typhoon of his spin-dash attack, blasting them as they strayed too close to the powerful wind storm and were either hit or sucked in to explode from his homing strikes.

"You've fallen into my trap, Sonic." Eggman billowed out, but Infinite looked like he was about to say that.

Lowering his hand down and glaring back to Eggman, he floated just below him, "Let me handle this." He almost hissed in his pride, floating down to see the sand settle as Sonic stopped in his tracks, posed in an epic halt from his speed and slowly folded his arms with a grin.

The robots all dropped as sparking husks of iron and steel around him, malfunctioning and turning quickly to heaps of sand by the continuing spiral of the falling sand to a lull of hushed heaps. Nature's natural eraser.

"You're fighting as you always have," Infinite mocked, motioning him to come at him. "Cocky and persistent… as though unaware of your truly horrendous weakness…"

Sonic just smiled.

This made Infinite's eye twitch slightly, "What..?" Both him and Eggman seemed a bit confounded by his lax appearance.

Eggman called to Infinite, "Where is it!?" leaning over his egg-mobile as Infinite turned to see his shaking hand at him.

He returned to his condensing glare towards Sonic, a flick of his egoistical tail. "Calm and collected… what ruse is this? Don't you wish to finish me? Stop the war you _allowed_ to get this far..?" he opened his arms to him, moving above into the skies.

The cubes formed everywhere, but Sonic just grinned, seeing how frazzled Infinite and Eggman looked at him.

"You're ploys to lure out whatever you implanted in me isn't going to work this time." He shook an energized finger out in front of him, "I won't be phased by your delusions. The biggest one being that you, Infinite, are somehow more powerful than me!"

Infinite lunged forward but Eggman flew up in his path, "Wait..! He knows…" Eggman glared down towards Sonic, being much more careful now.

"You know what harbors within you?" Eggman raised his carved and protruding eyebrow up a moment.

There was a stillness… as Sonic smirked.

"…He doesn't know." Eggman concluded, moving up to allow Infinite to combat him.

Infinite rose up a clawed hand behind him, shooting like an arrow through the sky towards Sonic as he felt the lapping desert air against his feet.

He looked down…

'Amy… I may not know what this thing is… but I do know how to combat it.'

He closed his eyes, hearing the familiar whistle of Infinite's fast approaching body.

The swipe of his claw reaching for Sonic's face.

Sonic thought of her cute, angry face with her puffed-up cheek on the side. Then, embarrassingly covering her face in glee at having spent an unforgettable batch of time kissing him and being kissed in a returned affection back.

"Heh!" he chuckled, blushing himself at the memory as he suddenly vanished from sight.

"What!?" Infinite halted in air, looking around.

Sonic's form came back into view, grabbing Infinite's tail and yanking it down to the ground, " _Yonk!_ "

"Grahh!" Infinite was flung to the sand.

"How can this be..!?" Eggman gripped his head, "No… there must be an explanation… he was uncontrollably in rage and inconsolable the last time we fought him!" Eggman bit his nails, thinking…

"Sonic! Yoo-hoo! Over here!" Eggman waved his hands about, distracting Sonic as he gave him a playful stare, smiling towards him.

"What will your friends think of you? Abandoning them to suffer like this so long!" Eggman grinned.

Sonic raised an eyebrow, seeing Infinite below him throw a punch and he expertly dodged by arching his back, seeing more fully Infinite's glove design. "P'ew! What horrid fashion sense. Did you choose the emo life or did Shadow give you a tip or two?" Sonic spat out a snarky statement. "Cringey, to say the least. Considering you smell of a depressed mood!" He raced away as Infinite followed him, infuriated as Eggman's mustache drooped down.

"He ignored me." He sorrowfully stated. "He didn't even quip back to me. He honestly didn't even consider my feelings on that one."

As he talked through the pain, Infinite and Sonic raced and battled.

"You're nothing, Sonic!" Infinite threw out his cubes, clones flying out at Sonic as he dodged them. They rolled, lifeless, against the sand as they moved at lightning speeds.

Sonic just stared up at him, loving how much they were trying.

"You can't save them, Sonic! You're useless! A weak, pathetic little insect!" Infinite bent forward, but Sonic spin-dashed into his stomach and brought him to the ground. His quills spiked and ground against the Phantom Ruby, pushing Infinite down as he struggled to fight him off.

"Hur-aah!" Infinite flung Sonic off of him and did manage to uncurl Sonic, flinging a claw into the ball and ripping Sonic to open into his normal state, snapping his claw out. "Why aren't you shifting?! Where is it!?" He pierced the ground by Sonic, but Sonic managed to crawl backwards, having the claw stab into the ground between his legs.

"Woah," Sonic stated, looking up with a goofy grin to Infinite. "That's personal." He jumped up and kicked Infinite in the face, causing him to stumble back as Sonic back-flipped with the effort and landed in a squat on the sandy ground. "And honestly, you need to be a higher leveled villain to unlock my redemption story."

"Gahh!" Infinite shook himself off from the impact, spreading his arms out wide, "I've had it with this! I'll just rip it out of you!" He charged Sonic, and they continued to fight as Eggman hovered above the two.

"Hmm… Maybe… Hey! Hey, Sonic! You may have taken back some of my land, but I'm still ruling an empire! You can't escape your doomed fate this time!" he laughed, putting on a show as Sonic was punched down by Infinite.

He shook his head and managed to dodge Infinite's oncoming foot-stomp.

He then sped off a distance and tapped his shoe, looking like he was having fun. "Is that all you two got?" Infinite rammed into him.

They tumbled against the sand a minute before disappearing into the warped reality. There was a wall of distortion, but Infinite was kicked out the other side as Sonic sped out with a knee up, ramming it under his chin and spending Infinite even farther.

He dusted off his hands, rubbed his knee and jogged in place.

Then Sonic looked to Eggman, stretching casually, as though this was another walk in the park…

"Words? What's wrong, Eggman?" He rotated his shoulder out, just warming up again as Infinite shook his head and gripped his mask, adjusting it as he got back up.

"Impossible…" Infinite began, "Where did he gain so much self-control in such a limited time?"

Eggman ground his teeth together, pounding his fists on his egg-mobile. "No, no, no! You're supposed to be fidgeting as your losing all consciousness over your physical self!"

"Me and my friends busted so much metal hide that you're finding it hard to recycle the scraps these days, Eggy?" Sonic looked to Infinite who charged him, but as he was moving, Sonic lured him towards a sand heap that Infinite tripped over while hovering over the sand. Most of the sand would loop into a crescent and let Infinite's aerodynamic body shoot right through; however, this time Sonic laughed and kicked the sand pile, revealing a previous robot that he had beaten just a few minutes before, "Your works are already disappearing to the sands of time, Eggman!" Sonic opened up his arms, mocking him bluntly. "And just like your old, metallic army…" He pointed straight at Eggman in the sky, "Your evil deeds done this day will be lost to history… No one will remember the fear or pain, damage, and loss you've put them through. Not while I'm still here."

As he lowered the finger, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and thinking of Amy again.

The darkness tried to entice him with a lull of emptiness against Eggman and Infinite, but when that didn't work, a sharp rage that threatened to consume him in the doubt that he would fail to save the world again from Eggman.

The hero they deserved… was not the man the darkness made him to be.

Amy knew that… She reminded him of that… taught him the same lessons he lived by time and time again.

He may have lost himself, but emerging from the sands, he had risen to accept that man she saw in her eyes… and not to disappoint her again.

That image of them on the gurney… entangling after the darkness had finally fled back into the compounds of himself, allowing him to grow close to her without the need to break free of anything. A kiss that he could never be angry at, from someone who truly cared about him… it lingered in his heart and kept him stable. Sane. _Enlightened_.

He didn't surrender his will to it this time, letting the sensations of his memory strangle it into submission. He just tugged on his gloves and looked back to Eggman, confident and cool, the man he wanted to be.

He wouldn't lose that again.

He tapped his foot back behind him to make sure the tip of his foot touched the top of his shoes, making sure they were secure, though covered in sand.

Maybe that meant Amy would wash them again for him…

Maybe that meant he would be without clothes in her room again…

Maybe he should stop thinking about this and stick to the program…

He frowned, tilting his head as though that train of thought wasn't closure with him quite yet.

"Any last words, Egghead?" He was gonna keep on running.

"Grrr... _How!?_ " Eggman hollered in defiance. "When did you become so assured!?"

Infinite rose then, flying up by Eggman, "I'll show you who you _truly_ are…" he rammed into him, Sonic struggling and fighting him as they both re-entered the phantom realm.

Hurling Sonic towards the platform and cracking him against a floating piece of earth, Sonic falls to the runway of the realm and picks himself up. "That all you got?" Sonic smiled up to him, but it was clear that one had hurt a bit.

"Let me remind you of our time on the moon…" Infinite shot out some lasers and pillars of burning rays.

It wasn't long before Sonic was greatly overwhelmed by Infinite's control over the power of this realm. Weakened and seeming beat, scraped up from the underside of Infinite's foot, Sonic was now being lifted up by Infinite's claw.

Infinite scooped him up as the steel from the floor below Sonic left the feeling from his quills as the darkness once again lured Sonic into releasing it out.

"I've defeated you again… Sonic." Infinite's eye sharpened into a crossed-slash as he tightened his hold upon Sonic's neck.

"Gah…ah…" Sonic struggled for air, his feet slightly dangling.

"Only your darkness was a match for me… Whahaha!" Infinite's laughed carried, as though through all eternity in this realm.

Sonic gripped the arm, but couldn't kick. His body was stiffening by the large Infinite duplicate that loomed over him like a stretched out Chaos, gripping him in his claws and hoisting him up.

"No, wait-! Ahh!" Sonic was flung into the road, crashing through it.

His head wagged as though momentarily passed out from the impact, but his eyes slowly blinked open and he shook his head, looking to the large Infinite. "You must be the older brother… heh." He spoke weakly out, "Your arrogant dumbness seems to run in the family…"

"Enough." Infinite flew up and whacked Sonic across the face with the backend of his hand, sending Sonic out of the claw and all the way back to the runway, crashing down with his body bobbing along the ground.

His fingers twitched… "You and I remember the moon very differently…" He slowly got up to his knee, breathing heavily, trying to keep Amy's face in his mind.

The soles of his feet began to betray him, sliding against the plane beneath him and finally giving way, forcing Sonic to his knees and holding him up by his hands.

Infinite descended behind him, still laughing, but quieter now…

He folded his arms, "You should be killed just for your insolence… You can't even accept your own demise… You've been beaten yet again, Sonic… The ruin of your precious planet, the disappointment and hate from your precious friends… it'll all be made clear upon your pasting…" he held up a hand to him, powering up at the center of his palm another red ray…

Sonic looked behind him, shakily before being blasted by the ray.

The explosion sent him flying off the plane, but Infinite unfolded his hands and pivoted in the air, "Hmph." He flew down to grab him.

"What was given to you for a short, temporary time… will give me lasting power to erase all question that I—Infinite—am the true terror of the universe..!" He held Sonic's limp body up, holding back a claw to his rip into his chest… retrieving the substance implanted therein…

Sonic's head just dangled in front of him, his body looking like a rag doll.

"This is your true end-!" Infinite lifted Sonic up above him, "Sonic!"

Then a weak smile.

"What..?!" Infinite's eye shakes.

Sonic peeks up a tried eyelid, showing off his cloud-white teeth. "Not even in your fake reality, Infinite." Sonic grabs the Phantom Ruby, "Dreams do come true, right?" He beamed, wishing for the power he needed…

"Noo..!" Infinite saw the Phantom Ruby glow upon his chest, looking down to see its power warp the reality around Sonic… "This can't be-!"

Sonic's body wasn't weighted in Infinite's grip anymore.

His body shone a dazzling shine of yellowish gold, the whole of the phantom realm brightened up to it as Sonic ascended up, then pulsed out with his arms next to him a powerful burst of light that sent Infinite cowering back, holding his arms up in front of him. "This can't be happening!"

"Time to face your worst fears, Infinite!" Sonic threw a fist down, "Your own weakness!"

"Nooo!" Infinite was pummeled senselessly by a rapid, comet-like fire of scorching hot punches from Sonic's fist. An infinite round of continuous punches back until Sonic saw the expanse of the phantom realm come to a close, but not before he smashed Infinite's face headfirst into floating pieces of the runaway his other clone had created.

Once Infinite was out, he blasted a beam towards the clone, who was too slow to catch him now, and its face melted and it slowly reeled back, disappearing into cubes.

Sonic just smirked,… 'Bet you would have liked to see that… Amy.' He then flew out of the realm.

He looked at his hands, seeing he wasn't in his idealized super form anymore but felt his heart.

Yeah… Amy still made him feel like that super cool, awesome and heroic guy taking down the villain to save the world.

This time, he had to take down himself, and finally proved that the past is nothing compared to the present him he'll make today.

He tightened his fist and looked unshaken before Infinite's crumbling form.

His eye shook rapidly from place to place, shifting about in total terror.

He was paralyzed against a sand heap that slowly revealed itself to be an Eggman invention.

"Ah… No!" He moved away from the robot, "I won't end up like you… I can still fight!" He threw a hand towards Sonic, but he caught it.

"My feelings," Sonic began, 'For Amy…' he continued in his head, "Are purer than just raw power from numbness."

Infinite's hand trembled in Sonic's grasp.

Sonic held it there, intimidating the heck out of him.

"I've figured something out, Infinite… something… you'll never understand." He jammed the held fist into Infinite's shaking eye, causing him to reel back before Sonic pulled him back upright again.

His other hand covered his one eye.

"H-How-?!" Infinite finally spoke, his voice like a quiet tremor, breathy and unable to fight back or lie about his current state. He was helpless before Sonic. "I took everything from you! Your pride, your friends, your power!" he was slowly falling to his knees, unable to even stand anymore, caught up in his fear. "You were _weak_ …" he shook his head, "Afraid!"

Sonic just stared down at him, little mercy, but lots of justice.

He didn't let go of him… "I didn't accept my feelings of disappointing everyone, my friends." He began, "Or not feeling good enough." His grip on Infinite's fist, now loosening to a quivering hand, tightened.

He wasn't letting him get away this time…

"But my friends always believed in me…"

 _Amy's constant companionship, her undying dedication when rushing into the battle to find him._

"And some… never gave up on finding a way to reach me."

" _I'm yelling cause your yelling!" Her sweet, nervous laugh. A peck on the check. Her eager face to serve him breakfast. Her blush at closing the door and acting like she hadn't thought about the implications of him being naked in her room. The cologne and her tight embrace. His shiny shoe buckles…_

He looked down now with sincerity to Infinite's terrified face, seeing Sonic now as a pillar of undying strength. "I can never be weak, Infinite. Not when my friends, their hope, _dwells within my very soul!_ "

With a true roundhouse kick, Sonic sent Infinite flying back. He hit the ground a few times, his head motioning left a moment before falling limp to the right.

"My plans!" Eggman gripped his head, "Ruined!" he sobbed almost comically…

Then began to laugh manically as he pulled out a remote of some kind.

"But not entirely… heh-heh-heh… huh?" Eggman was about to push the button, making Sonic step out to a wider stance in preparation for whatever was about to happen, looking startled by that declaration before…

They both heard… just like the sound of the X-Tornado, an engine in the distance…

"Hmm?" Eggman turns around. "WHAHAHAHAHAAA-HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!" he bolts his egg-mobile forward, freaking out as a full-on military tank leaps and scales through the sky after riding along a huge, angled rock cliff disguised by the sandy terrain and comes crashing down towards Eggman.

Eggman manages to dodge the oncoming deathtrap but grabs at his chest, heaving and huffing at his old heart giving way to the jump-scare… literally _again_!

The tank sinks into the sand, and Sonic's ear flicks to hear Knuckles's blasting voice through the top of the tank as the whole thing begins to steam and power down.

"YOU BROKE MY BATTLE PLAN!" Clearly, Knuckles was so upset and filled with unquenchable wrath, that he combined the sentences—"You crashed my tank!" with "You ruined my battle plan!".

The tank catches slightly on fire from the back, as the whole of the crew begins to pile out in scrambled fright from the single holed exit lid they popped off immediately.

Vaguely, a pink head begins to wiggle herself out of from the lid, flipping her hair up and jumping determinedly to the ground. She stands boldly at the front of the tank, her arms having been just placed confidently at her hips before she stumbles forward from the blast of the engine, the entire tank blowing up in flames.

"MY HEAVY ARTILLERY!" Knuckles throws his arms up, "It took _**8 MONTHS**_ to build that thing!"

Amy pushed her hair back, looking through the part of her arms at Knuckles in an innocent look of, 'I didn't mean too' and then tried to regain her poise from before.

She dusted herself off and walked up to Sonic, trying to accentuate her hips in her steps.

She then stopped in front of Sonic, checks herself over, peeks to see his fixated reaction, and then poses again. " _Miss me?_ " in a deep, drawled, luscious voice… she clearly tries to make herself look and sound like the hot action chick in any adventure movie.

She puffs a flying quill out of her face, but it continues to drift with the sandy breeze over her face.

Losing her completed scene, she fiddles with her hair and then her bangs start to do the same thing.

She ruffles her hands in her face and then turns her head to the side, avoiding the problem. She winks to keep the sand out of her eye now turned to the wind but plays it off as a cute, spunky flirt to him. " _I'm gonna need a ride_."

Sonic, with a big smile on his face, suddenly shifts into character and lifts a leg up, leaning towards her with his hands together, blinking as though swooning and falling for her. "I do believe you already have one." He then offers her his arms.

She's amazed at first by his response, but then her face slowly turns to excitement and she darts into his arms, jumping and wrapping her legs around his waist, hugging him with absolute admiration and love.

"Emm..! I just knew you'd give in someday, Sonic The Hedgehog!"

Peeking up at her, he smiles wider and closes his eyes, taking her in…

Eggman, noticing a shift in their usual dynamic, suddenly pulls his egg-mobile closer in curiosity. "What…" He lifts a hand up, twiddling its fingers for a moment by his chin. " _Is this..?_ "

He looks to a flashing light on his monitors, seeing Sonic's dark energy dissipate as she came nearer to him.

His intelligent brain begins to speak to each individually genius brain cells, and soon, he connects the idea that Amy has something to do with the dark entity's inability to consume Sonic's will.

He looks again, noticing Sonic's reaction to Amy's usual, doting antics were this time reciprocated in a much more… friendlier… way.

Thankfully, he wasn't around for Sonic's speech, or that may have given too much away…

Eggman flies over to Infinite, grabbing him quickly and sparking two car battery charger prongs together, "This isn't the end for you." He electrocutes him awake. "I still have an ace up my sleeve…"

Eggman lifts Infinite up, shaking him, "Now you listen to me! No matter how ridiculous this may sound!" Eggman takes his face and shoves it in the direction of the two. "You get that dark substance out of him and implant it in the Phantom Ruby…" He then squeezed on Infinite's face, "And now tell me, not what you see… but what you _feel_?"

Infinite's eye began to calculate with its half-roboticized form the dark substance matching a similar _ring_ on his scans to his own power… but then…

He looked to Amy, who's natural power seemed to counteract the dark substance. It seems to reach out for her, but as she giddily praised and doted on Sonic, his face lighting up to her, the dark substance thrashed and was withdraw back into itself.

"Oh… _Her_."

His head rose, the shaking of his fearful eye all but shook still.

Eggman grinned mercilessly.

"Yes." He agreed.

"Never thought I'd say this…But,"

He shrugged,

" _ **Heeeerrrr**_."

His voice turned husky in a raspy hiss as he growled out her name upon the sand-littered winds that rushed by them.


End file.
